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THE     SABBATH. 


DISCOURSES 


THE      SABBATH 


geouge  duffield  and  albebt  babnes. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
GEORGE   W.    DONOHUE, 

NO.  13  SOUTH  FOURTH  STREET. 
1836. 


Entered  according-  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year 
1836,  by  George  W.  Donohue,  in  the  Office  of  the  Clerk 
of  the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 


1.  ASHMEAD  AND  CO.  PRINTERS. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

The  following  Discourses  were  preached 
by  the  authors,  on  the  same  day,  in  accordance 
with  an  arrangement  with  several  of  their 
ministering  brethren.  The  arrangement  ori- 
ginated in  a  deep  and  growing  conviction  that 
the  Lord's  day  was  increasingly  disregarded 
in  the  city  where  they  dw^ell,  and  throughout 
the  land;  and  that  the  violation  of  the  day  was 
threatening  destruction  to  all  that  is  valuable 
to  us  as  citizens  and  as  Christians.  Believing 
that  an  appeal  to  the  people  of  their  respective 
charges,  on  this  subject,  would  not  be  in  vain; 
believing,  especially,  that  Christians  might  be 
excited  to  a  deeper  reverence  for  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  and  that,  through  them,  an  extensive 
influence  might  be  excited  in  others,  the  dis- 


VI  ADVERTISEMENT. 

courses  were  delivered.  With  the  humble 
hope  that  the  same  sentiments  may  be  useful 
to  those  to  whom  the  discourses  were  deliver- 
ed, and  to  others  also,  they  are  now  submitted 
to  the  Christian  public  through  the  press.  But 
one  object  has  been  aimed  at  in  these  dis- 
courses; but  one  is  desired  by  their  authors  in 
their  publication — that  those  who  are  now 
Christians,  and  all  others,  may  be  led  to  the 
observance  of  the  divine  command,  "  Remem- 
ber TO  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day." 

Philadelphia,  Sept.  16,  1836. 


THE    MORAL    OBLIGATION    OF   THE 
CHRISTIAN    SABBATH. 


BY  GEORGE  DUFFIELD. 


PART   I. 


CONTAINING  THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  THE  NATURE  OP 
MAN. 


The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man. — Mark,  ii.  27. 


"  In  those  days,"  said  Nehemiah,  "  saw  I  in 
Judah  some  treading  wine-presses  on  the  Sab- 
bath, and  bringing  in  sheaves,  and  lading  asses; 
as  also  wine,  grapes,  figs,  and  all  manner  of 
burdens,  which  they  brought  into  Jerusalem  on 
the  Sabbath  day ;  and  I  testified  against  them 
in  the  day  wherein  they  sold  victuals.  There 
dwelt  men  of  Tyre  also  therein,  which  brought 
fish,  and  all  manner  of  ware,  and  sold  on  the 
Sabbath  unto  the  children  of  Judah,  and  in 
Jerusalem.    Then  I  contended  with  the  nobles 


14 

of  Judah,  and  said  unto  them,  What  evil  thing 
is  this  that  ye  do,  and  profane  the  Sabbath 
dayr 

Nehemiah  was  a  patriot.  His  patriotism 
was  not  that  morbid  selfishness,  which  seeks 
the  public  good  because  it  conduces  to  its  own 
interest.  He  attempted  a  thorough  reforma- 
tion among  his  fellow  citizens,  and  risked  every 
thing  in  the  attempt.  The  influence  of  his 
government,  and  the  jealousies  of  neighbouring 
nations,  were  opposed  to  his  eflbrts.  Every 
device  was  used  to  defeat  his  design.  At  one 
time  he  was  fawned  upon  and  flattered,  and  at 
another,  frowned  upon  and  menaced.  Plots 
were  laid  against  his  life.  Detraction  was 
employed  to  injure  his  reputation,  and  to  crush 
his  influence.  Attempts  were  made  to  deceive 
him  by  hypocritical  appearances  and  profes- 
sions of  piety.  But  all  failed.  Nothing  could 
divert  him  from  his  efforts  to  correct  the  evils 
and  abuses  prevaihng  in  his  country. 


15 

The  evil  of  main  consequence,  and  which 
threatened  the  very  existence  of  his  nation, 
was  Sabbath-breaking.  It  had  become  ex- 
ceedingly alarming,  and  almost  universal. 
By  multitudes  it  was  made  a  day  of  business; 
and  a  regular  market  was  estabhshed,  as  well 
for  the  merchant  as  the  victualler.  The  nobi- 
lity and  the  court  encouraged  secular  transac- 
tions on  that  day;  but  Nehemiah  contended 
wuth  them  on  the  subject.  In  so  doing  he 
urged  the  claims  of  God,  and  reminded  those 
who  were  guilty  both  of  the  evil  and  of  the 
danger  of  the  desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  as 
verified  in  the  conduct  of  their  ancestors,  and 
the  judgments  with  which  they  had  been 
visited. 

Few  will  deny  that  if  God,  the  rightful  mo- 
ral governor  of  the  universe,  has  set  apart  to 
himself  every  seventh  day,  and  required  it  to 
be  appropriated  to  his  worship,  it  cannot  but 
be  as  dangerous  as  it  is  daring  for  the  rulers 


16 

of  a  nation,  the  men  of  station,  property  and 
influence,  and  the  people  generally,  to  refuse 
or  neglect  to  consecrate  it  to  him,  and  to  suf- 
fer business,  recreation  or  pleasure,  to  pervert 
it  from  the  ends  for  which  it  has  been  reserved 
and  designed.  Whether  it  be  the  fact,  that 
God  does  require  the  consecration  of  a  seventh 
portion  of  our  time,  therefore,  is  a  question  of 
very  serious  import.  That  he  actually  did 
from  the  Jews,  during  the  period  of  their  the- 
ocracy, will  be  denied  by  none  who  admit  the 
scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  to  be  valid 
evidence  in  the  case.  The  most  zealous  anti- 
sabbatarians, — which,  by  the  way,  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  distinctive  appellation  of  the 
infidel  portion  in  our  country  at  the  present 
time, — will  generally  admit,  that  if  the  Bible  is 
evidence  worthy  of  reliance,  there  is  evidence 
enough  that  the  character  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath, and  the  obligation  of  that  people  to  ob- 
serve it,  were  most  sacred. 


17 

The  idea  has  indeed  been  started,  that  the 
obhgation  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  went  no  far- 
ther than  to  the  observance  of  a  seventh  day  of 
repose  or  animal  rest,  and  that  scenes  of  mirth 
and  festive  recreation  w^ere  more  appropriate 
to  its  use  and  design  than  the  worship  of  Jeho- 
vah. A  fallacious  criticism  has  been  sum- 
moned in  support  of  this  position,  and  it  has 
received  sanction  and  currency  in  the  United 
States  in  an  article  published  some  years  since 
in  the  American  Quarterly  Review.  The 
falsity  and  absurdity  of  such  an  idea  were 
satisfactorily  and  unanswerably  exposed  by  the 
venerable  Bishop  White,  of  this  city,  in  the 
second  of  three  letters  addressed  by  him  to  the 
editor  of  that  periodical.  Yet  is  there  reason 
to  apprehend  that  its  pernicious  influence  has 
been  extensively  felt.  Some  mighty  influence, 
unfavourable  to  the  moral  obligation  of  the 
Sabbath,  has  been  at  work  of  late.  Of  this, 
the  rapid  increase  and  growing  extent  of  Sab- 
bath desecration  affbrd  melancholy  proof.  It 
b2 


18 

is  easy  to  see  what  the  effect  will  be,  if  men's 
notions  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
can  be  impaired.  The  Christian  Sabbath  is 
confessedly  a  milder  institution.  Wherefore, 
it  will  be  argued,  if  animal  rest  and  festive  re- 
creation were  the  appropriate  means  of  the 
sanctification  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  any  ap- 
proximation to  the  pharisaic  austerities  by 
which  its  observance  had  been  rendered  on- 
erous in  the  days  of  Christ,  must  be  much 
more  improper  now,  since  the  Jewish  ritual 
and  Jewish  institutions  have  been  supplanted 
by  Christianity. 

The  sacredness  and  obligation  of  the  Jewish 
Sabbath,  under  the  Mosaic  code,  are  not,  how- 
ever, to  be  successfully  contested.  It  cannot 
for  one  moment  be  supposed,  that  a  God  of 
justice  and  benevolence  would  overwhelm  a 
people  as  the  Lord  did  Israel,  with  his  deso- 
lating judgments,  for  appropriating  to  secular 
uses  a  day  of  mere  pastime  and  festivity.    But 


19 

if,  on  the  other  hand,  as  was  the  fact,  he  had 
reserved  that  day  for  his  worship  exclusively, 
and  the  observance  of  it  in  this  way  served 
great  moral  uses,  and  secured  great  social  ad- 
vantages, the  desecration  of  it  could  not  have 
occurred  with  impunity.  This  will  not  be  de- 
nied by  those  who  wish  to  secularize  the  Chris- 
tian Sabbath.  The  argument  just  noticed  is 
too  refined  and  ingenious  for  them.  They  pre- 
fer to  concede  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath  all  the 
sanctity  claimed  for  it ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
to  affirm  that  its  intention  and  uses  were  pe- 
culiar to  the  Jewish  nation.  The  obligation 
to  observe  it,  it  is  alleged,  expired  with  Juda- 
ism, and  forms  no  part  of  the  Christian  scheme. 
Hence  they  object  to  all  civil  enactments  for 
the  protection  of  the  Sabbath,  and  refer  what- 
ever prejudice  in  its  favour  yet  hngers  in  so- 
ciety, to  the  influence  and  authority  of  pofitical 
constitutions  or  ecclesiastical  decrees.  This 
is  the  popular  doctrine  of  this  nation.  On  this 
ground  American  infidelity, — I  use  not  the 


20 

term  reproachfully,  but  with  respect, — meets 
us;  and  when  the  Christian  community  urge 
the  religious  observance  of  their  Sabbath,  chal- 
lenges us  to  produce  the  proof  of  its  obligation. 

It  is  designed  in  this  discourse  to  show,  that 
the  obligation  to  observe  a  Sabbath  did  not 
originate  in  the  special  legislation  of  God  for 
Israel,  but  grows  out  of  the  very  exigencies  of 
our  nature :  in  doing  which  we  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  unfold    THE  MORAL  OBLIGATION  OF  THE 

Christian  Sabbath. 

It  is  proper,  however,  to  premise,  that  the 
distinction  between  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Sabbath  is  freely  admitted.  There  were  some 
things  characteristic  of  the  former,  which  nei- 
ther prior  nor  subsequent  to  its  enactment 
formed  any  part  of  the  moral  obligation  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  promulgation  of  the  law  of  the 
ten  commandments  on  Mount  Sinai,  and  the 
poUtical  legislation  of  the  divine  Being  for  the 


21 

Jewish  nation,  gave  the  Sabbath  peculiar  ob- 
ligation and  significancy  among  them.  It  be- 
came a  sign  and  memorial  of  a  special  relation 
between  God  and  that  people,  and  of  the  de- 
liverance he  had  wrought  for  them  from  Egyp- 
tian bondage  and  oppression.*  The  observ- 
ance of  it  was  required  not  only  once  in  seven 
days,  but  limited  to  the  seventh  or  last  day  of 
the  week.  The  very  strict  abstinence  from 
manual  labour  and  social  recreation  which  it 
required,  and  by  which  its  character  became 
assimilated  to  the  entire  and  pecuhar  economy 
which  God,  as  their  political  sovereign,  had 
established  with  that  people;  the  excessively 
severe  and  special  penalties  which  were  ap- 
pointed for  its  neglect  and  desecration;  and 
the  engrafting  on  it  of  a  whole  series  of  acts 
of  worship,  adapted  to  the  great  uses  and  in- 
tentions of  the  Mosaic  ritual,  were  merely 
incidental.  Whatever  obligations  to  observe 
the  Sabbath  originated  either  in  the  special 

*  Deut.  V.  15. 


22 

political  compact  between  God  and  that  people, 
by  virtue  of  which  the  theocratic  form  of 
government  was  established, — or  in  the  pecu- 
liar and  important  uses  which  the  observance 
of  a  Sabbath  under  such  a  constitution  was 
designed  to  secure, — form  no  part  of  that 
which  we  contend,  attaches  to  the  Christian 
Sabbath. 

It  is  proper  still  farther  to  premise,  that  the 
appropriation  of  the  term  Sabbath,  to  denote 
the  Christian's  day  of  rest,  by  Congregational- 
ists  and  Presbyterians  generally  in  this  country, 
after  the  example  of  the  Puritans,  the  Dissent- 
ers in  England,  and  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
does  not  imply  the  entire  identity  of  the  Jew- 
ish and  the  Christian  Sabbath.  To  avoid 
making  such  an  impression,  and  to  distinguish 
the  Christian  from  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  some, 
as  the  Friends,  have  preferred  to  designate  it 
by  its  numerical  appellation,  the  first  day  of 
the  week;  and  others,  as  many  of  the  Baptists, 


23 

by  its  descriptive  title,  the  Lord's  day.  The 
use  of  the  term  Sabbath,  it  is  probable,  has 
led  some  to  suppose,  that  in  so  designating  the 
Christian's  day  of  rest,  and  in  urging  the  obli- 
gation of  Christians  to  cease  from  labour  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  to  appropriate  it 
to  religious  worship  instead  of  social  hilarity, 
the  continuity  and  obligation  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath, with  all  its  peculiarities  and  penalties, 
have  been  maintained.  * 

Dr.  Bound  was  the  first  person  in  England 
to  awaken  public  attention  to  this  subject,  and 
to  insist  on  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  with 
more  care  and  exemplariness  than  were  thought 
proper  by  the  dignitaries  and  members  of  the 
established  church.  The  governing  clergy, 
with  Archbishop  Whitgift  at  their  head,  de- 
nounced Dr.  Bound's  book,  gave  orders  for  its 
being  called  in,  prohibited  it  from  being  re- 
printed, and  condemned  it  as  advancing  doc- 
trines contrary  to  that  of  their  church  and  the 


24 

laws  of  the  kingdom — as  disturbing  the  peace, 
and  as  tending  to  sedition.  These  proceedings, 
on  the  part  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities, 
excited  a  prejudice  against  those  who  advo- 
cated the  moral  obligation  of  the  Christian  day 
of , rest,  and  who  used  the  term  Sabbath  by 
which  to  designate  it.  These  prejudices  have 
not  wholly  ceased,  so  that  when  in  enforcing 
the  moral  obligation  of  the  Christian  day  of 
rest  it  is  called  a  Sabbath,  objections  are  quickly 
made,  that  in  so  doing  it  is  attempted  to  intro- 
duce the  antiquated  and  obsolete  Sabbath  of 
the  Jews.  But  assuredly  no  magnanimous 
mind  will  resort  to  such  a  mode  of  reasoning, 
whatever  may  be  the  prejudices  against  the 
term,  or  predilections  for  another.  The  term 
Sabbath  is  adopted  in  this  discourse,  to  desig- 
nate the  Christian  day  of  rest,  because  it  was 
originally  used  by  God  himself,  and  has  been 
sanctioned  and  approved  by  the  divine  Spirit 
speaking  in  the  apostle  Paul,  when  treating  ex- 
pressly of  this  day,  notwithstanding  he  does 


25 

indeed  rebuke  the  contentions  prevailing  in  his 
day  about  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Let  no  one 
therefore  suppose,  because  we  use  the  term 
{Sabbath  in  advocating  the  moraUty  of  the 
Christian  day  of  rest,  that  we  plead  for  the 
peculiarities  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 

When  addressing  a  Christian  auditory,  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  may  be  appealed  to  as  of 
paramount  authority.  They  are  the  testimony 
of  Him  who  cannot  lie.  With  those  who  re- 
ject their  infallible  authority  and  plenary  inspi- 
ration, arguments  thence  deduced  will  not 
be  deemed  conclusive.  They  are  only  to  be 
influenced  by  general  moral  and  rational  con- 
siderations, which  make  their  appeal  to  men's 
judgment  and  natural  sense  of  propriety.  With 
the  former,  the  question  as  to  the  moral  obliga- 
tion of  the  Christian  Sabbath  relates  simply  to 
a  matter  of  fact,  and  to  decide  it,  the  record 
must  be  examined.  It  resolves  itself  into 
these  two :  Has  God  required  the  observance 


26 

of  a  Sabbath  ?  and — Has  there  been  made  a 
record  of  this  fact?  With  the  latter  we  must 
adopt  a  different  mode  of  procedure.  The 
question  with  them  relates  to  the  reasonable- 
ness, importance,  and  necessity  of  observing 
such  a  day.  Does  it  subserve  the  real  interests 
of  man,  or  are  its  claims  an  imposition?  Are 
there,  then,  any  considerations  drawn  from  the 
nature  of  man,  which  will  unfold  the  moral 
obligation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath,  and  show 
that  it  "  WAS  MADE  FOR  MAN,"  and  is  demanded 
by  the  exigencies  of  our  nature  ?  In  reply,  I 
remark : 

1.  That  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath  is  de- 
manded by  our  instinctive  appetite  for  bliss. 
Whoever  acknowledges  the  existence  of  a  su- 
preme Being,  on  whom  creation  depends,  will 
concede,  that  he  might  lawfully  claim  to  be 
contemplated,  by  all  his  rational  creatures,  with 
appropriate  reverence  and  regard.  Indeed,  the 
human  mind  cannot  fail  to  form  some  exalted 
conceptions  of  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  such 


27 

a  being.  The  extent  of  his  universe — the  order 
and  harmony  of  his  creation — the  richness  and 
variety  of  nature's  beauteous  scenes — the  end- 
less series  of  Hving  beings — the  delicacy  and 
aptitude,  or  the  vastness  and  wisdom  of  their 
structure — the  wise  and  benevolent  designs  for 
which  they  have  been  formed,  and  the  admi- 
rable manner  in  which  they  have  been  fitted 
to  meet  them — the  provision  made  for  the 
healthful  action  and  rational  enjoyment  of  the 
higher  orders  of  creation — the  traces  of  wis- 
dom and  goodness,  of  power  and  design,  which 
every  where  meet  the  wandering  eye — and  the 
universal  subserviency  of  the  creation  to  his 
plans  and  providence,  cannot  fail  to  inspire  us 
with  some  lofty  notions  of  the  Deity,  and  to 
excite  emotions  which  are  in  themselves  fraught 
with  bliss.  Now  it  is  the  nature  of  man,  that 
whatever  view^s  and  feelings,  tending  to  excite 
and  elevate,  take  possession  of  the  mind,  do 
also  seek  and  secure  for  themselves  some  ap- 
propriate method  of  expression.  The  language, 
the  tone,  the  attitude,  the  countenance,  all  in- 


28 

dicate  the  emotions  of  the  heart.  Where  the 
infinite  and  eternal  Supreme,  in  the  magnitude 
of  his  power,  the  majesty  of  his  authority,  the 
extent  of  his  dominion,  and  the  moral  glory 
of  his  character,  is  contemplated,  the  attention 
is  given  to  the  sublimest  object  in  the  universe, 
and  there  must  be  excited,  in  some  degree,  the 
emotions  which  it  is  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
sublime  to  inspire.  These  emotions,  when  ex- 
cited, will  express  themselves.  They  cannot 
be  restrained  and  held  in  absolute  secrecy 
within  the  bosom  where  they  are  engendered, 
but  will  betray  themselves  in  the  hand  uplifted 
— the  eye  kindling  with  devotion — the  knees 
bowing  to  the  earth — the  cheek  bedewed  with 
tears — and  the  lips  giving  utterance  to  the 
mind's  conceptions.  Hence  the  original  of 
divine  worship.  To  deny  to  men  the  privilege 
of  expressing  their  emotions,  and  of  uttering 
the  thoughts  that  excite  them,  is  to  make  war 
upon  their  natural  and  inalienable  rights. 
The  very  instincts  of  man's  being  lead  him  to 


29 

acts  and  expressions  of  adoration,  where  the 
feelings  of  reverence  and  regard  for  God  are 
excited.  He  may,  indeed,  and  alas  !  often  does 
most  sadly  err  in  the  object  of  his  worship, 
substituting  the  creature  for  the  Creator ;  but 
this  affects  not  the  strength  of  the  argument. 

Now  man  is  no  more  certainly  inclined,  by 
the  instinct  of  his  being,  to  express  the  emo- 
tions which  may  be  excited,  than  to  seek  the 
influence  of  social  sympathy,  in  order  to  in- 
crease and  prolong  such  as  produce  a  pleasur- 
able excitement.  All  our  emotions  are  tran- 
sient, and  can  only  be  sustained  by  resorting 
to  some  method  to  continue  or  repeat  the  first 
impressions  that  excited  them.  In  all  our  plea- 
surable emotions  we  resort  to  society,  that,  by 
the  interchange  of  sympathies,  we  may  secure 
this  result.  Devotional  feelings  belong  to  the 
highest  class  of  pleasurable  emotions.  Shall 
we  be  denied  the  bliss  that  springs  from  their 
social  indulgence  and  expression  1 
c  2      . 


30 

Does  the  votary  of  fashion  or  the  stage  claim 
the  right  of  appropriating  a  time  and  a  place 
in  which  to  cherish  his  pleasurable  emotions, 
and  to  prolong  and  repeat  their  excitement  ? 
And  shall  the  religious  sensibilities  be  extin- 
guished by  refusing  to  us  the  right  of  associating 
for  their  public  indulgence  and  expression?  By 
no  means,  is  the  reply  of  every  candid  and  be- 
nevolent mind.  But  is  not  this  denied  in  effect, 
where  the  general  voice,  the  sanctions  of  law, 
and  the  demands  and  habits  of  the  business 
community,  prevent  the  repose  and  concur- 
rence essentially  necessary  to  secure  them?  It 
becomes,  in  the  eye  of  the  majority,  a  selfish 
matter  altogether  to  keep  a  Sabbath,  when  in 
doing  so,  men  run  counter  to  the  regulations, 
habits  and  sentiments  of  the  country.  The 
sanction  of  business  or  worldly  recreation  on 
the  Sabbath  is,  in  reality,  and  will  be  found  in 
its  ultimate  results  to  be,  the  denial  of  a  Sab- 
bath to  us,  and  consequently  of  the  social  en- 
joyments to  be  had  in  religious  worship. 


31 

The  existence  of  the  feelings  which  prompt 
to  social  religious  worship  is  part  of  our  bliss, 
and  consequently  the  indulgence,  expression, 
and  revival  of  them,  becomes  an  object  of  care, 
as  certainly  as,  by  the  very  law  of  our  nature, 
we  seek  our  own  happiness.  Shall  w^e  be 
compelled  to  have  them  locked  up  in  the  se- 
crecies of  our  own  heart  ?  But  this  result  will 
be  secured  if  there  be  not  the  appropriation  of 
some  time,  by  general  concurrence,  to  be  set 
apart  particularly  for  that  purpose,  and  that 
too  a  time  statedly  and  regularly  recurring, 
not  to  be  invaded  by  the  demands  of  business 
or  the  distraction  of  worldly  care — that  the 
indulgence  and  cultivation  of  one  class  of  our 
blissful  emotions  shall  not  conflict  with  others, 
and  the  necessary  duties  of  our  relations.  The 
appropriation  and  observance  of  such  time, 
and  for  such  purpose,  is  substantially  the  keep- 
ing of  a  Sabbath.  The  observance  of  a  Sab- 
bath, therefore,  is  not  of  arbitrary  appoint- 
ment, but  a  thing  demanded  by  the  instincts  of 
our  rational  nature,  capacitated  as  it  is  for  the 


32 

attainment  of  bliss  in  the  adoration  of  the  Deity. 
Just  as  important  and  reasonable,  as  proper 
and  necessary,  as  it  is  that  we  should  seek  and 
attain  to  true  happiness — so  proper,  and  rea- 
sonable, and  necessary  is  it,  that  we  should 
have  a  Sabbath;  and  just  as  important  and 
necessary  as  it  is  that  there  should  be  time  ap- 
propriated, by  general  concurrence,  for  the 
prosecution  of  business  and  the  cultivation  of 
social  feeling — so  important  and  necessary  is 
it  that  there  be  a  pause  in  the  pursuits  of 
industry,  and  a  general  cessation  from  busi- 
ness, to  admit  of  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath. 
The  infidel  and  others,  therefore,  who  by  secu- 
larizing the  Sabbath  would  rob  us  of  it  alto- 
gether, do  in  reality  wage  war  against  our 
purest  and  noblest  delights — upon  the  means 
and  sources  of  human  bliss,  and  upon  the  very 
instincts  and  sensibilities  of  our  nature.  This 
argument  may  be  carried  yet  farther. 

2.  The  observance  of  a  Sabbath  is  required  by 
the  demands  cf  our  intellectual  nature. — If  men 


33 

neglect  the  cultivation  of  their  minds,  they  pro- 
portionally sink  into  ignorance  and  barbarism. 
They  not  only  limit  the  sphere  of  their  enjoy- 
ment, but  degrade  themselves  to  the  level  of 
the  brute  creation,  for  it  is  the  rational  mind 
that  makes  them  to  differ.  We  have,  indeed, 
powers  and  capacities  for  bliss,  in  common 
with  the  brute ;  but  the  bliss  is  that  of  mere 
animal  enjoyment.  Our  intellectual  powers 
qualify  us  for  joys,  as  superior  to  those  of 
sense,  as  is  the  immortal  mind  superior  to  the 
mortal  body.  But  in  order  to  the  bliss  inci- 
dent to  intellectual  advancement,  there  must 
be  time  appropriated  for  the  cultivation  and 
exercise  of  the  rational  powers.  The  thousand 
cares  which  distract  men's  attention — the  im- 
perious demands  for  personal  and  laborious 
industry  which  are  daily  made  on  the  great 
mass  of  men,  in  attempting  to  secure  the  means 
of  animal  subsistence — the  enslaving  and  stu- 
pifying  influence  of  a  sordid  cupidity,  which 
urges  hundreds  and  thousands  impetuously  for- 


34 

ward  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth — and  the  nume- 
rous and  consequent  distractions  that  thence 
arise,  all  exert  a  powerful  influence  to  prevent 
or  to  retard  intellectual  improvement.  Unless 
there  is  some  time  which,  by  common  consent, 
shall  be  appropriated  for  the  purpose  of  thought 
and  reflection  on  matters  foreign  from  their 
pecuniary  interests  and  occupations,  and  un- 
less the  general  arrangements  of  society  be 
favourable  to  the  stated,  and  regular,  and  uni- 
versal intermission  of  manual  labour  and  per- 
sonal industry,  the  great  mass  of  mankind  will 
not  and  cannot  be  enlightened.  Nothing  but 
a  Sabbath  will  meet  this  exigence  of  our  ra- 
tional nature.  There  is  a  stillness  and  quietude 
pecuhar  to  the  day  set  apart  for  the  worship 
of  God,  which  are  essential  to  the  healthful 
employment  of  the  minds  of  the  great  mass  of 
human  society.  And  by  that  division  of  labour 
which  brings  the  benefit  of  six  days'  study  in 
the  ministry  of  reconciHation  to  bear  on  the 
minds  of  hundreds  on  the  Sabbath  simultane- 


35 

ously,  a  most  invaluable  stimulus  to  mental  ex- 
ertion, and  materials  for  mental  improvement 
are  furnished.  Substitute  a  day  of  recreation 
and  festivity,  of  social  hilarity  and  glee,  for  the 
Sabbath,  and  refuse  to  the  ministry  direct  and 
free  access  to  the  minds  of  the  community, 
and  you  change  the  form  of  excitement,  dis- 
traction and  labour,  but  do  not  furnish  any 
facilities  or  incitements  for  the  healthful  exer- 
cise of  the  mind,  or  the  improvement  of  its 
intellectual  powers.  Ignorance  and  supersti- 
tion will  pervade  the  mass  of  society,  just  in 
proportion  as  you  withhold  the  means  of  intel- 
lectual improvement  peculiar  to  the  Sabbath, 
and  substitute  holy-days  and  days  of  social  or 
national  festivity.  It  cannot  be  otherwise ; 
and  the  history  of  our  race  proves  that  it  has 
always  been  the  fact.  Where  no  Sabbath  ob- 
tains, or  where  the  laws  and  usages  of  society, 
or  the  superstitious  substitution  or  addition  of 
holy-days  of  man's  appointment,  sanction  its 
perversion  into  a  day  of  recreation  and  mirth, 


36 

of  idleness  and  dissipation;  the  ministry  of  re- 
conciliation become  secular  and  corrupt,  and 
a  taste  for  intellectual  improvement  disappears. 
In  the  mass  of  the  community,  a  taste  for  the 
fine  arts  may  indeed  be  cultivated,  as  a  taste 
for  moral  and  intellectual  improvement  disap- 
pears, provided  wealth,  and  the  fondness  for 
luxurious  Hving  attendant  on  wealth,  exten- 
sively exist ;  but  the  taste  for  the  fine  arts  will 
soon,  under  such  circumstances,  betray  a  dis- 
relish for  manly,  intellectual  pursuits,  and  the 
pencil  and  the  chisel  become  auxiliary  to  the 
indulgence  and  cultivation  of  a  growing  lasci- 
viousness,  polluting  and  poisoning  the  fountains 
of  intellectual  improvement.  Proofs  of  this 
appear  extensively  in  the  heathen  w^orld,  and 
in  those  nations  of  Europe  where  the  Sab- 
bath has  lost  its  sanctity.  Italy  afibrds  a 
striking  illustration  of  this.  Ignorance  and 
superstition  become  leagued  with  licentious- 
ness, wherever  and  whenever  the  desecration 
of  the  Sabbath  becomes  universal,  however 


37 

that  desecration  is  produced.  A  few  indivi- 
dual cases  may  be  excepted,  but  the  mass  de- 
sire not  high  intellectual  improvement.  The 
time  and  means  appropriate  to  it  are  wanting. 
For,  the  taste  for  it  has  been  destroyed  by  the 
influence  of  an  effeminate  refinement,  of  the 
dominion  of  fashion,  and  of  a  luxurious  sensu- 
ality. Imagination  takes  the  place  of  reason, 
and  passionate  excitement  is  substituted  for  the 
force  of  truth. 

But  where  a  Sabbath  obtains,  there  a  seventh 
portion  of  a  man's  life  is  or  may  be  appropri- 
ated to  those  mental  exercises,  to  which  the 
worship  of  God  and  the  gospel  of  Christ  invite, 
and  which  discipline  the  mind,  elicit  thought, 
and  elevate  the  intellectual  character  of  man. 
No  other  means  can  be  devised,  so  simple  and 
so  efficient,  to  enlighten  and  invigorate  the 
mind  of  society,  as  the  religious  observance  of 
a  Sabbath.  It  is,  in  fact,  "  the  great  day  of  light 
to  this  benighted  world.    The  earth  would  not 


38 

really  be  darker  without  the  sun,  than  the  in- 
tellectual hemisphere  without  the  Sabbath." 
The  argument  may  yet  further  be  pursued, 
by  the  consideration, 

3.  'That  the  Sabbath  is  important  and  neces- 
sary, for  the  moral  improvement  of  mankiiid. 
Abstract  the  influence  of  rehgion  from  among 
a  people  and  you  at  once  impair  their  morals. 
Dr.  Ward,  the  Baptist  missionary  in  Hindostan, 
remarked,  that  during  twenty  years'  residence 
in  that  country,  he  had  never  met  one  heathen 
that  was  a  moral  man.  And  Sir  William  Jones, 
after  the  same  period  of  observation,  testified 
that  he  never  knew  a  Hindoo  who  would  not 
perjure  himself  for  money.  Let  a  people  once 
reject  all  religion,  deny  the  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures,  set  aside  the  Sabbath,  substitute  for 
it  their  days  of  social  glee  and  dissipation,  be- 
lieve that  death  is  an  eternal  sleep,  and  doubt 
the  existence  of  God,  and  their  infidelity  and 
scepticism  will  bear  away  every  moral  bar- 


39 

rier,  and  pour  in  upon  them  floods  of  immoral- 
ity and  crime.  The  experiment  was  once  tried 
in  France,  and  such  was  the  result.  The  re- 
straints of  religion,  and  the  salutary  influence 
of  an  evangeHcal  ministry,  cannot  be  perma- 
nently felt  on  the  mass  of  society  without  a  Sab- 
bath. But  in  exact  accordance  with  the  influ- 
ence of  a  Sabbath,  in  a  community  or  nation, 
will  be  found  its  improvement  in  morality.  Of 
this  Scotland  affords  a  striking  example.  Pri- 
vate morality,  too,  flourishes  and  prevails  in  the 
highest  degree,  where  the  sacredness  of  the 
Sabbath  is  most  regarded.  Do  you  ever  find 
that  villains  and  knaves,  the  licentious  and 
gamblers,  poHtical  intriguers  and  adventurers, 
corrupt  and  debauched  legislators,  or  any  of 
the  great  enemies  of  social  order  and  moral 
purity,  observe  the  Sabbath  day  ?  They  are, 
in  fact,  its  opposers  and  revilers ;  and  well 
they  may  be,  for  its  moral  influence  in  pre- 
venting crime,  or  in  exposing  it  to  shame,  im- 
poses restraints  more  formidable  and  effectual 


40 

than  any  code  of  penal  law  enacted  by  man. 
The  history  of  robbers,  adulterers,  murderers, 
assassins,  and  all  the  great  desperadoes  in 
crime,  who  have  inflicted  deep  and  bleeding 
wounds  on  society,  and  fallen  sacrifices,  them- 
selves, to  the  incensed  justice  of  their  coun- 
try, invariably  proclaims,  that  with  the  neglect 
and  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  commenced 
their  career  to  ruin.  Nothing  can  compen- 
sate for  the  want  of  a  Sabbath,  in  attempts 
made  to  promote  public  virtue.  While  nothing, 
on  the  other  hand,  sheds  such  a  salutary  influ- 
ence upon  the  minds  of  men,  and  facihtates 
their  attempts  at  reformation  and  the  practice 
of  virtue  as  the  Sabbath.  The  illumination  of 
mind,  the  retirement  into  self,  the  converse 
with  our  own  hearts,  and  the  knowledge  of 
man's  deceitfulness  and  depravity,  the  culti- 
vation of  conscience,  the  purification  of  the 
passions,  the  restraint  and  government  of  the 
appetites,  and  the  excitement  of  the  generous 
affections,  are  greatly  promoted  by  the  ob- 


41 

servance  of  the  Sabbath.  These  things  are, 
in  reality,  secured  by  it;  and  give  it  incalcu- 
lable importance  in  the  preservation  of  moral 
and  public  virtue  in  the  world.  And,  this  being 
the  fact,  its  influence  on  the  public  weal,  and 
its  conservative  tendency  among  a  people,  are 
not  to  be  questioned.  It  is  the  grand  palla- 
dium of  public  morals,  and,  consequently,  of 
national  prosperity. 

Whatever  view,  therefore,  we  take  of  man; 
whether  we  regard  his  religious  sensibilities ; 
his  intellectual  powers,  or  his  moral  capacities, 
the  Sabbath  is  a  most  reasonable,  important 
and  necessary  expedient  to  promote,  alike,  his 
highest  and  ennobling  enjoyments,  and  his 
intellectual  and  moral  improvement.  What 
more,  then,  can  be  needed  to  convince  every 
honest  and  reflecting  mind  of  the  moral  obli- 
gation of  the  Sabbath?  Who  can,  with  im- 
punity, resist  the  claims  of  that  which  is  proper, 
and  reasonable,  important  and  necessary,  not 
d2 


42 

only  for  his  own  best  interests,  but  for  those 
of  society? 

This  argument  might  be  pursued  yet  fur- 
ther, and  the  moral  obligation  of  the  Sabbath 
be  proved  from  the  influence  which  its  ob- 
servance necessarily  exerts  on  social  order, 
on  domestic  repose,  on  animal  rest,  on  personal 
cleanliness,  on  the  courtesies  of  life,  on  civil 
liberty,  on  the  prevention  of  pauperism  or  the 
mitigation  of  its  evils,  on  healthful  ardour  in 
the  prosecution  of  business,  on  the  wealth  of 
nations,  on  political  prosperity,  and  on  the  sta- 
bility of  governments.  But  the  range  is  too 
extensive  for  the  present  discourse.  The  ele- 
ments of  the  argument  have  been  already 
given,  and  every  reflecting  hearer  is  capable 
of  carrying  them  out,  and  applying  them  for 
himself. 

The  considerations  already  suggested  relate 
only  to  the  general  moral  obligation  to  observe 
a  Sabbath. 


43 

In  a  subsequent  discourse  we  shall  notice  the 
particular  claims  and  obligation  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath.     In  the  mean  time, 

1.  Let  us  learn  what  serious  injury  is  done 
to  the  public  weal  by  the  desecration  of  the 
Sabbath.  It  is  cutting  the  very  ligaments  that 
bind  society  together,  and  preserve  it  in  health- 
ful action.  To  co-operate  with,  to  employ  for 
that  purpose,  or  to  countenance  those  who  de- 
secrate it,  is  to  connive  at  the  destruction  of 
public  morals.  What,  then,  shall  be  thought 
and  said  of  their  religion  or  patriotism  who 
sacrifice  its  sanctity,  and  set  aside  its  obliga- 
tions for  the  purpose  of  pecuniary  emolument? 
They  cannot  but  be  regarded  as  moral  nui- 
sances in  the  community: — as  the  incendiaries 
of  pubhc  order,  who  seek  to  profit  by  the  cor- 
ruption and  confusion  they  produce.  Misera- 
ble is  the  plea  of  that  man  who  alleges,  that  his 
worldly  business  requires  he  should  travel  on 
the   Sabbath,  or  embark  in   companies  and 


44 

schemes  for  enrichment,  demanding  their  own, 
or  the  labour  of  others,  on  that  day.  The 
numerous  companies  which  employ  steam- 
boats, stages,  packets  and  rail-road  cars,  and 
construct  and  own  rail-roads,  for  the  purpose 
of  facilitating  travelling  on  the  Sabbath,  are 
chargeable,  in  the  sight  of  God,  with  the  crimes 
of  those  whom  they  thus  tempt,  or  enable,  to 
pervert  that  day  to  business  or  to  pleasure; 
and  they  should  be  held  responsible  by  man  for 
all  the  evils  inflicted  on  the  community  by  its 
profanation.  By  companies  thus  referred  to, 
are  not  meant  the  boards  in  their  collective 
character,  but  all  and  every  one  of  their  seve- 
ral stockholders.  God  will  not  deal  with  com- 
panies, but  he  will  judge  every  one  according 
to  his  deeds,  whether  they  be  good  or  evil. 
By  holding  a  share  in  a  stage,  or  car,  or  pack- 
et, or  rail-road,  owned  by  a  company  who  use 
it  on  the  Sabbath,  the  individual  sanctions  the 
profanation  of  that  day,  and  seeks  from  the 
crimes  of  his  fellow  men  to  increase  his  worldly 


45 

gain.  He,  therefore,  not  only  makes  him- 
self partaker  of  other  men's  sins,  but  renders 
them  subservient  to  his  advantage;  and  does, 
in  fact,  sacrifice,  as  far  as  his  act  and  inten- 
tion go,  the  interests  of  the  community,  the 
pubHc  morals,  and  the  honour  of  God,  for  his 
own  private  and  selfish  ends.  Can  he  be  ac- 
counted innocent?  To  do  so  is  to  prove  re- 
creant to  the  interests  of  society,  and  to  the 
honour  of  God.  The  principle  involved  in 
these  remarks,  applies  to  companies  for  the 
distribution  of  ice,  and  for  the  distilling  of 
liquor,  and  to  the  victuallers  and  retailers,  and 
all  who  engage  in  traffic  or  labour,  manifestly 
not  demanded  by  necessity  or  mercy. 

2.  Let  us  learn,  also,  how  ruinous  is  the  tend- 
ency of  Sabbath  desecration,  on  those  who 
perpetrate  it.  The  violation  of  the  Sabbath 
is  done  in  disrespect  of  moral  obligations. 
It  is  an  overt  act  of  rebellion  against  God, 
who  has  a  right  to  claim  our  expressions  of 


46 

homage  to  himself  on  that  day.  It  induces 
hardness  of  heart ;  for  there  can  be  no  resist- 
ance of  his  claims  without  injuring  our  moral 
sensibilities.  It  exposes  the  perpetrator  to 
endless  temptations;  leads  him  into  dangerous 
and  ruinous  company ;  surprises  him  into  sin- 
ful excesses ;  bears  him  away  from  the  house 
of  God  and  the  restraining  and  sanctifying  in- 
fluence of  a  preached  gospel ;  and  squanders 
the  time  that  might  be  profitably  employed  in 
mental  and  moral  cultivation.  How  much 
knowledge  might  be  gained  by  a  man  were  he 
to  begin  in  the  season  of  youth,  and  devote 
the  Sabbath  to  the  study  of  the  Bible,  the  pe- 
rusal of  moral  and  religious  works,  and  to  the 
quickening  influence  which  the  regular  public 
preaching  of  the  gospel  will  exert  on  the  minds 
of  those  that  take  heed  to  the  things  which 
they  hear.  One-seventh  part  of  a  man's  hfe 
cannot  be  thus  spent  without  great  and  lasting 
improvement  and  benefit,  as  well  in  relation  to 
this  life  as  to  the  life  to  come.     The  cares  and 


47 

labours  of  the  week,  and  the  fatigue  and  per- 
plexity incident  to  worldly  business,  often  pre- 
vent private  attempts  at  intellectual  improve- 
ment. How  invaluable  then  is  the  Sabbath, 
which,  once  in  seven  days  breaks  in  upon  the 
bustle  and  business  of  life,  secludes  men  from 
the  interruption  of  company,  throws  a  stillness 
around  them,  and  invites  them  to  think  and 
meditate,  to  read  and  to  reflect.  If  this  sacred 
day  be  disregarded,  and,  instead  of  appropri- 
ating it  with  all  the  facilities  it  furnishes  to  the 
purposes  of  intellectual  and  moral  improve- 
ment, it  be  made  a  day  of  pastime,  sensuality 
will  urge  its  demands,  idleness  will  expose  to 
powerful  temptations,  and,  ere  long,  it  shall  be 
seen,  that  habits  of  sinful  indulgence,  the  do- 
minion of  fleshly  appetites,  and  a  seared  con- 
science have  marked  the  wretched  being  as  a 
candidate  for  everlasting  wo. 


THE    MORAL    OBLIGATION    OF   THE 
CHRISTIAN    SABBATH. 

BY  GEORGE  DUFFIELD. 
PART  II. 


PART  II. 


CONTAINING    THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  THE  RECORD  OF 
ITS  DIVINE  APPOINTMENT. 


The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man. — Mark.  ii.  27. 


Some  suggestions  have  been  made,  designed 
to  unfold  our  obligations  to  devote  a  por- 
tion of  our  time,  regularly  recurring,  to  the 
worship  of  God.  How  great  or  how  small 
that  portion  should  be,  is  a  question  of  some 
interest.  Experience  proves,  that  the  propor- 
tion of  six  days'  labour,  and  one  of  rest,  is  best 
adapted  to  the  physical  constitution  of  man, 
and  will  enable  him  to  effect,  in  a  given  pe- 
riod, the  greatest  amount  of  labour  with  the 


52 

least  detriment  to  his  muscular  and  intellectual 
energies.  The  argument  for  the  moral  obli- 
gation of  the  Sabbath,  suggested  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  man's  sensitive,  intellectual  and 
moral  nature,  might  be  yet  farther  strength- 
ened by  a  reference  to  those  of  his  physical 
constitution.  The  observance  of  a  Sabbath 
can  be  shown  to  be  the  best  provision  for 
preserving  the  restorative  power  of  the  body, 
designed  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of  muscu- 
lar energy  produced  by  continual  labour  and 
excitement.  It  is  not  said  that  thence  may  be 
inferred  the  moral  obligation  to  devote  the 
seventh  part  of  our  time  to  purposes  of  rest 
from  labour  and  the  worship  of  God.  It  ought 
to  have  its  influence ;  but  that  obligation  is  set- 
tled among  Christians  by  the  revealed  will  of 
God. 

Yet  here  the  argument  is  encumbered  with 
difficulties.  Although  the  Bible  is  the  oldest 
book  in  the  world,  and  claims  to  be  a  revela- 


53 

tion  from  God,  having  maintained  its  claims  for 
thousands  of  years,  in  despite  of  all  attempts  to 
invalidate  them ;  yet  has  it  been  limited  in  its 
circulation  and  influence.  It  v^^as  given  origi- 
nally to  one  nation,  and  for  a  long  period  con- 
fined almost  exclusively  to  them.  Such  also, 
it  is  alleged,  was  the  character  of  the  Sabbath 
it  enjoins. 

In  reply,  it  may  be  remarked,  that,  previ- 
ously to  the  revelation  of  God's  w^ill  becoming 
embodied  in  a  volume,  written  by  man  at  the 
suggestion  of  his  Spirit,  and  being  thus  hand- 
ed over  to  the  Jewish  nation  as  its  special  pri- 
vilege and  charge,  the  mind  and  will  of  God 
had  been  revealed,  with  sufficient  distinctness, 
in  separate  but  frequent  communications  to  the 
whole  human  family.  Divine  revelations,  and 
a  divine  intercourse  with  men,  are  assumed  in 
all  the  mythological  systems  of  the  ancient 
nations; — which  fact  is  proof  conclusive,  that 

however  clearly  they  appear  to  be  counter- 
e2 


54 

feits,  there  must  have  been  a  genuine  original. 
If  the  revelations  made  to  distinguished  and 
holy  persons,  in  all  the  early  nations  of  anti- 
quity, have  been  corrupted  and  lost,  God  is 
not  chargeable  with  neglect  or  partiality ;  but 
the  necessity  of  embodying  his  revelations  in  a 
written  volume,  under  the  infallible  dictation  of 
his  Spirit,  and  of  confiding  them  to  the  care  of 
some  one  particular  nation  for  their  scrupulous 
preservation,  and  for  transmission  to  future 
generations,  is  only  rendered  more  apparent. 

In  examining,  therefore,  into  the  record, 
which  the  Bible  contains  with  regard  to  the 
Sabbath,  there  are  several  questions  which,  it 
is  obviously  important,  should  be  duly  consi- 
dered and  answered,  viz. 

Was  there  a  Sabbath  observed  in  the  world 
previously  to  the  writings  of  Moses,  ivith  which 
confessedly  commenced  the  system  of  written 
revelation  ? 


55 

If  so,  did  the  Sabbath,  by  divine  appointme?ii, 
sustain  any  change  in  its  character  and  designs, 
which  were  limited  and  peculiar  to  the  Jewish 
nation  1 

If  such  change  icas  made  by  divine  direction, 
has  the  law  introducing  it  been  abrogated  1 

If  that  law  has  been  abr^ogated,  has  its  abro- 
gation rendered  null  the  entire  obligation  with 
regard  to  the  original  Sabbath;  or,  in  other 
words,  does  the  obligation  to  keep  a  seventh  part 
of  our  time  as  a  Sabbath  still  exist,  notwithstand- 
ing the  Mosaic  code  has  been  superseded,  or  at 
least  has  expired  by  its  oivn  limitations  ? 

And  have  we,  on  all  these  points,  any  docu- 
mentary proof? 

A  reply  to  these  inquiries  will  form  the  his- 
torical argument  already  referred  to,  and 
unfold  more  fully  the  moral  obligation  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath. 


56 

In  reply  to  the  inquiry,  whether  there  was  a 
Sabbath  observed  in  the  world  prior  to  the 
writings  of  Moses,  two  things  are  essential  to 
the  establishment  of  the  fact :  First,  that  there 
should  be,  in  those  writings,  some  recognition 
of  the  revelations  previously  made,  or  some 
allusions  on  the  subject  implying  its  existence: 
and.  Second,  that  there  should  be  some  memo- 
rials of  the  same  preserved  in  the  usages  of 
society,  and  in  the  profane  history  of  high 
antiquity.  On  both  points  there  is  satisfac- 
tory evidence. 

Moses  states  it  as  a  fact,  that  the  very  first 
day  after  the  work  of  creation  had  been  com- 
pleted, a  Sabbath  was  divinely  ordained  to  be 
kept.  Moreover,  his  whole  account  of  the 
process  of  creation,  day  after  day,  as  being  the 
work  of  six  successive  days  of  labour  on  the 
part  of  God,  is  given  as  the  rationale  of  the 
Sabbath  then  instituted.*     The  objections  of 

*  Gen.  ii.  1—3. 


57 

some  geologists  against  the  Mosaic  account  of 
creation,  who  allege,  that  the  creating  process 
required,  and  the  internal  structure  of  the  earth 
itself  shows,  that  the  six  days  of  Moses  are — 
if  Moses  is  at  all  to  be  believed — indefinite  pe- 
riods of  time,  a  thousand  years  at  least,  cannot 
invalidate  the  force  of  this  remark;  for  the 
researches  of  others,  and  the  principles  of  the 
Newtonian  philosophy,  rather  confirm  the  ac- 
count of  Moses,  than  the  speculations  of 
the  early  geologists.*  The  plain  and  ob- 
vious import  of  the  language  of  Moses  and 
of  Paul's  reasoning,  on  this  subject,  is,  that 
God  prolonged  the  work  of  creation  through 
a  period  of  six  days,  instead  of  effecting  it  in- 
stantaneously, in  order  to  furnish  to  his  intel- 
ligent creatures  a  reason,  in  his  own  example, 
for  the  hebdomadal  division  of  time,  into  six 
days  of  labour  and  one  of  rest. 


*  See  Penn's  Comparative  Estimate  of  the  Mosaic  and 
Mineral  Geologies. 


58 

Dr.  Paley  has  indeed  rejected  the  testimony 
of  Moses  in  this  case,  as  evidence  of  the  fact, 
that  a  Sabbath  was  instituted  at  the  close  of 
the  work  of  creation.  What  he  says  about 
Moses  speaking  proleptically,  and  the  Sabbath 
having  been  first  instituted  after  the  Exodus  of 
the  children  of  Israel  from  Egypt,  needs  no 
refutation  here.  Dr.  Dwight,  and  others,  who 
have  written  on  this  subject,  have  so  satisfac- 
torily exposed  the  falsity  of  Dr.  Paley's  rea- 
soning, that  even  his  warmest  admirers  must 
admit  that  Moses  speaks  historically,  and  not 
by  anticipation; — that  he  states,  as  matter  of 
fact,  that  the  seventh  day  from  the  beginning 
of  creation,  or  the  Jii^st  entire  day  of  Adam's 
existence  was  set  apart  as  a  day  of  rest,  to  be 
appropriated  to  the  worship  of  God. 

As  to  the  state  of  things  in  the  antediluvian 
world,  and  whether  a  Sabbath  was  observed 
before  the  flood,  we  have  no  direct  testimony. 
Yet   have  we  information  enough  to  prove, 


59 

that  the  hebdomadal  cycle  was  well  and  fami- 
liarly known.  Both  Cain's  and  Lamech's  pu- 
nishment is  estimated  on  the  basis  of  it — seven- 
fold vengeance  being  denounced  against  the 
former,  and  Lamech  apprehending  seventy 
times  seven.  Several  of  Noah's  movements, 
and  his  method  of  computing  time,  seemed  to 
have  been  regulated  by  it.  The  doves  were 
sent  forth  from  the  ark  after  the  interval  of  a 
week  between  each.  Subsequently  to  the 
deluge,  and  prior  to  the  age  of  Moses,  as  early 
as  in  Abraham's  and  Jacob's  days,  the  heb- 
domadal cycle  was  spoken  of  as  a  thing  both 
common  and  well  understood.  Now  it  is  im- 
possible to  account,  satisfactorily,  for  such  a 
division  of  time,  or  the  computation  of  time, 
by  sevens,  in  preference  oi jives  or  tens, — which 
is  much  more  easy  for  arithmetical  and  bu- 
siness purposes — except  upon  the  supposition 
that  the  septenary  cycle  was  universally  known . 
and  observed.  For  there  is  no  reason  in  the 
facility  of  computation,  nor  in  the  natural  ha- 


60 

bits  of  men  of  business,  nor  in  the  motions  of 
the  heavenly  bodies  to  incline  men  to  it.  No 
other  reason  for  its  universal  prevalence,  than 
God's  institution  of  a  Sabbath,  can  be  assigned. 
But,  on  the  supposition  of  the  divine  institution, 
and  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath,  from  the 
origin  of  our  race,  the  division  of  time  into 
weeks  becomes  perfectly  intelligible. 

It  behooves  the  infidel  opponents  of  the  Sab- 
bath to  account,  in  a  rational  and  satisfactory 
manner,  for  the  universal  prevalence  of  the 
practice  of  computing  time  by  the  septenary 
cycle. 

We  have,  therefore,  in  the  writings  of 
Moses,  and  the  usages  of  society,  just  that  sort 
of  incidental  proof  of  the  observance  of  a 
Sabbath,  prior  to  his  day,  which  the  nature  of 
the  case  requires;  and  which  is  better  than 
any  more  direct.  Moses  states  the  reason  of 
its  original,  and  alludes  to  a  prevalent  method 


61 

of  dividing  time  long  prior  to  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath; which  can  be  accounted  for  on  no  other 
supposition.  Beside,  when  the  law  of  the  Sab- 
bath was  made  a  subject  of  inquiry  by  the 
people  of  Israel,  the  time  Dr.  Paley  dates  its 
origin,  the  whole  account  of  the  transaction, 
as  given  by  Moses,*  show^s  plainly,  that  it  had 
previously  existed.  And,  when  God  pro- 
nounced his  commands  on  Mount  Sinai,  and 
enjoined  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath,  he  al- 
luded to  it  as  a  thing  already  known  and  un- 
derstood. "  Remember,^^  said  he,  "  the  Sab- 
bath-day." 

This  evidence,  from  the  writings  of  Moses, 
is  corroborated  by  the  testimony  of  profane 
antiquity.  It  is  a  well  known  fact,  that  there 
were  many  superstitions  in  the  heathen  world, 
connected  wath  the  number  seven.  The  Py- 
thagorean and  Platonic  philosophers  esteemed 

*Exoa.  xvi.  22~o\. 
F 


62 

it  a  sacred  number;  and,  although,  in  the 
writings  of  the  ancients,  there  are  many  no- 
tions and  speculations  about  the  pleiades,  and 
triones,  two  constellations  in  which  are  seven 
stars — about  the  number  of  the  planets  which, 
according  to  their  reckoning,  were  seven — of 
the  seven  musical  notes,  and  the  change  of 
the  moon  every  seven  days,  and  critical  days 
in  bodily  distempers,  which  it  was  thought  oc- 
curred every  seven  days ;  and  other  things  of 
like  nature,  all  of  which  seem  to  have  given 
importance  to  the  number  seven  ;  yet  are  they 
totally  insufficient  to  account  for  the  sacred 
character  attached  to  it.  The  old  tradition  of 
the  creation  of  the  world,  in  six  days,  and  the 
Sabbath  that  followed,  on  the  seventh,  by  the 
ordination  of  God,  is  the  true  original  of  this 
numerous  class  of  superstitions. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  ancient  superstitions 
that  we  trace  the  memorials  of  a  primeval 
Sabbath.     There  is  proof  extant  in  their  writ- 


63 

ings.  Any  lad  in  college  might  quote  Homer, 
who  not  only  recognises  an  hebdomadal  divi- 
sion of  time,  but  pronounces  the  seventh  day 
to  be  holy,  and  the  day  in  which  all  things 
were  finished.  Dr.  Dwight  has  coH'ected  tes- 
timonies from  Hesiod,  Homer,  Linus,  Calli- 
machus,  Suetonius,  Lucian,Josephus,  Philo  and 
Tibullus,  as  did  Dr.  Owen  before  him,  which 
it  is  unnecessary  to  cite.  Josephus,  whose 
credibility,  in  this  particular,  has  not  been 
assailed,  says,  "  There  is  neither  any  city  of 
the  Greeks  nor  barbarians,  nor  any  nation 
whatever,  to  whom  our  custom  of  resting  on 
the  Sabbath  is  not  come."  Grotius  has  shown 
that  the  Oriental  nations,  generally,  and  the 
Greeks,  Italians,  Celta?,  Sclavi,  and  even  the 
Romans,  were  not  ignorant  of  the  custom. 
Our  Saxon  ancestors,  before  their  conversion 
to  Christianity,  observed  an  hebdomadal  divi- 
sion of  time,  and  the  vulgar  names  by  which 
we  designate  the  several  days  of  the  week, 
are  derived  from  those  appropriated  by  them 


64 

for  that  purpose,  long  before  the   Bible  was 
known  to  them. 

Whence  came  this  universal  custom?  No 
other  satisfactory  answer  can  be  given  than 
that  it  is  the  memorial  found  embedded  in  the 
usages  of  society,  of  the  primeval  Sabbath  or- 
dained by  God  from  the  creation.  Wherefore 
we  have  precisely,  and  in  full,  the  very  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  a  Sabbath,  prior 
to  the  writings  of  Moses,  which  the  nature  of 
the  case  admits  of  and  demands. 

As  to  the  inquiry,  whether  the  primeval 
Sabbath  sustained  any  change  in  its  character 
and  uses,  when  the  law,  in  relation  to  it,  was 
re-enacted  by  God,  and  delivered  to  the  Jews, 
as  the  people  of  his  theocracy,  it  may  suffice 
to  remark,  that  neither  the  admission  nor  de- 
nial of  such  a  change  can  have  any  beariiig 
on  our  argument.  We  plead  not  for  the  Jews' 
Sabbath.   If  God  had,  for  special  purposes,  ren- 


65 

dered  their  Sabbath  more  significant,  and  by 
special  legislation,  provided  for  the  manner  of 
its  observance,  in  all  minute  details,  it  will  not 
follow,  that,  in  doing  so  for  them,  he  has  inva- 
lidated the  obligation  previously  existing,  and 
binding,  from  the  beginning  of  creation,  on  all 
nations,  to  appropriate  a  seventh  part  of  their 
time,  from  their  necessary  labour,  to  his  wor- 
ship. 

It  is  very  probable,  according  to  the  sug- 
gestion of  Dr.  Mede,  and  the  arguments  of  Dr. 
Jennings,  that  God  changed  the  day  on  which 
the  Sabbath  was  to  be  observed  by  the  Jews, 
and  threw  it  back  one  day  in  the  w^,  when 
he  changed  the  time  for  the  commencement  of 
their  year  from  the  month  Tisri,  or  Septem- 
ber, to  Abib,  or  March. 

If,  to  put  a  marked  distinction  between  the 
Jews  and  other  nations,  God  changed  the  com- 
mencement of  their  year,  and  the  day  of  the 
F  2 


66 

week,  lor  the  observance  of  their  Sabbath, 
this  special  legislation  could  not  affect  other 
nations.  And  when  the  whole  Mosaic  econo- 
my expired,  by  its  own  hmitation,  as  it  did 
with  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and,  with  it, 
all  that  was  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
the  original  obligation  of  the  primeval  Sab- 
bath could  not,  in  the  least  degree,  be  impair- 
ed ;  but  its  observance  by  those  who  rejected 
the  Mosaic  rites,  would  naturally  take  place 
on  the  first  day  of  the  Jewish  week,  or  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week,  in  regular  succession, 
counting  from  the  beginning  of  creation. 

When  the  Jewish  economy  expired,  things 
would  naturally  revert  to  the  state  in  which 
they  were  from  the  beginning;  and  the  obli- 
gation to  observe  a  Sabbath,  existing  from  the 
beginning,  would  be  felt  by  all  Christians,  not- 
withstanding they  no  longer  recognized  the 
authority  of  the  Jewish  code;  and  notwith- 
standing the  resurrection  of  Christ  on  the  first 


G7 

day  of  the  Jews'  week,  which,  on  supposition 
of  the  change  above  referred  to,  synchronized 
with  the  day  on  which  Adam's  Sabbath,  in 
regular  series,  would  have  occurred,  enabled 
them  to  associate  the  remembrance  of  the 
wonders  of  redemption,  with  the  remembrance 
of  the  work  of  creation.  Such  a  change  ac- 
tually did  take  place  on  the  expiration  of  the 
Jewish  code;  and,  to  our  minds,  is  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  the  moral  obligation  of 
the  primeval  Sabbath.  It  was  predicted,  in 
the  sacred  Scriptures,  that  such  a  change 
should  occur,  when  the  day  of  the  Messiah's 
resurrection  was  designated  as  the  day,  thence- 
forth, to  be  observed  for  religious  w^orship.* 

Unless  it  can  be  shown,  that  God  did  act- 
ually release  the  nations  of  the  earth  from  the 
obhgation  to  observe  the  primeval  Sabbath, 
the  particular  arrangements  which  he  made 
with  the  Jews,  changing  the  character  of  their 

*  Ps.  cxviii.  24. 


68 

Sabbath  somewhat/ and  throwing  the  time  for 
its  observance  a  day  forward,  cannot  affect 
the  obHgation  devolving  on  all  the  world  to 
keep  a  Sabbath.  That  obligation  remains  un- 
impaired and  entire,  notwithstanding  God's 
special  legislation  for  the  Jewish  nation. 

Now,  there  are  but  two  periods  in  the 
world's  history,  in  which  it  can  be  pretended 
that  any  change  was  made  in  the  divine 
enactments  on  this  subject.  The  first  was 
when  God  re-enacted  the  law  of  the  Sabbath, 
with  special  strict  provisions  for  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  changed  its  character  somewhat, 
making  it  a  sign  and  commemoration  of  their 
dehverance  from  Egyptian  bondage,  as  well  as 
of  the  work  of  creation.*  The  special  legislation 
of  God  on  this  subject  for  them,  we  have  just 
seen,  did  not  and  could  not  affect  the  general 
relation  of  other  nations  to  him,  as  their 
moral  governor,  and  their  obligations  to  ob- 

*  Deut.  V.  15,  and  Ex.  xxxi.  12,  17. 


69 

serve  the  primeval  Sabbath.  A  special  lav^, 
passed  by  our  legislature,  regulating  the 
market  day  in  one  county,  and  fixing  it  on 
another  day  of  the  week  from  the  rest,  does 
not  affect  the  general  lav^^  in  relation  to  all  the 
others.  If  it  is  claimed,  that  the  nations  of  the 
earth  have  been  released  from  the  original 
obligation  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  the  record  of 
the  fact  must  be  produced.  It  cannot  be  found 
in  the  special  regulations  for  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple. But  not  only  must  the  record  be  pro- 
duced; it  must  also  be  shown,  that  a  change 
has  taken  place  in  the  constitution  of  man,  and 
in  the  structure  of  society,  which  renders  the 
observance  of  a  Sabbath  unnecessary:  for  we 
have  already  proved  that  the  observance  of  a 
Sabbath  is  demanded  by  the  very  exigencies  of 
man's  sensitive,  intellectual  and  moral,  and,  we 
might  add,  of  his  physical  nature — and  the 
demonstration  might  be  pursued  through  his 
domestic,  social,  political,  and  grand  national 
relations.  This,  however,  cannot  be  done. 
No  one  has  attempted  to  do  it.    The  moral  obli- 


70 

gation,  therefore,  devolving  on  all  to  observe  a 
Sabbath,  was  not  impaired  by  the  special  divine 
legislation  for  the  Jews,  when  its  character  and 
design  coofessedly  sustained  sonae  change. 

Neither  has  it  been  affected  by  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  Jewish  code,  which  is  the  second 
period  when  it  has  been  alleged  the  obligation 
did  cease.  For  the  enactment  of  a  law  for  a 
term  of  years  for  a  particular  county,  and  to 
expire  by  its  own  hmitation,  cannot  affect  the 
relations  and  obligations  of  other  counties  in 
the  state  not  contemplated  in  that  law. 

Will  it,  however,  be  alleged,  that  Christi- 
anity has  proclaimed  a  release  from  obliga- 
tion? This  is  in  fact  done  by  some.  The 
remarks  and  conduct  of  the  Saviour  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Jewish  Sabbath  have  been  adduced 
by  many  of  our  infidel  presses  as  arguments 
against  the  moral  obligation  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath.  The  censures  of  Christ,  passed  on 
the  Pharisaic   austerity  of  those  who  were 


71 

requiring  what  God  did  not  require,  even  under 
the  Mosaic  code,  can  never  be  legitimately 
cited  as  proofs  that  Christ  denied  all  obligation 
to  keep  a  Sabbath.  Whatever  Christ  said  and 
did  to  show  the  wickedness  of  the  Pharisees, 
who  made  such  a  bad  use  of,  and  perverted 
the  Sabbath,  peculiar  to  themselves,  has  no 
relevancy  whatever  to  the  obligation,  in  com- 
mon with  all  mankind,  to  observe  a  Sabbath 
according  to  God's  original  intention. 

Should  it  be  objected  that,  when  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  was  set  aside,  there  should  have  been 
the  promulgation  of  a  new  sabbatic  law,  and 
that  now  no  obligation  to  keep  a  Sabbath 
exists,  because  Christianity  has  not  done  this, 
but  on  the  contrary,  that  the  writings  of  the 
New  Testament  observe  strict  silence  on  this 
subject,  it  may  be  replied, — that  the  law  of  the 
primeval  Sabbath  existed  in  full  force,  having 
never  been  abrogated,  and  therefore  there  v/as 
no  necessity  for  a  new  statute. 


72 

When  God  pronounced  the  moral  law  on 
Mount  Sinai,  he  did  not  then  originate  its  obli- 
gations, but  only  proclaimed  those  which  had 
existed  from  the  beCTinninsj:  and  he  did  this  as 
their  political  lawgiver,  that  they  might  under- 
stand his  civil  and  political  statutes  were  based 
on  the  moral  law.  Accordingly,  he  com- 
manded that  the  Sabbath  should  be  remem- 
bered. Others  indeed  were  superadded  to  this 
general  obligation,  but  they  related  to  that 
which  was  special,  and  of  limited  duration,  in 
the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Had  Christianity  pro- 
claimed a  new  statute  on  the  subject  of  the 
Sabbath,  it  would  have  impliedly  impeached 
the  validity  of  the  original  and  oecumenical 
law.  There  could  have  been  no  necessity  to 
enact  a  new  statute  on  the  subject.  To  have 
done  so  would  have  been,  not  only  useless,  but 
injurious ;  for  this  would  have  been  to  acknow- 
ledge that  there  was  something  defective  in 
the  original  law,  or  at  least  that  it  had  fallen 
into  such  desuetude,  or  become  so  obsolete, 
that  he  dared  not  enforce  its  sanctions. 


73 

The  alleged  silence  of  Christianity,  and  of  the 
New  Testament  scriptures,  therefore,  on  this 
subject,  so  far  from  being  a  confirmation  of 
the  objection,  does  actually 'give  great  force  to 
the  original,  perpetual,  and,  we  must  say,  im- 
mutable obligation  of  the  primeval  Sabbath. 

If,  again,  it  is  objected,  that  although  the 
apostolic  epistles  to  the  Gentile  churches,  con- 
tain very  minute  directions  with  regard  to 
Christian  conduct,  yet  they  are  silent  in  rela- 
tion to  a  Christian  Sabbath:  we  remark,  that 
Christianity  never  designed  to  require  a  Jewish 
Sabbath,  nor  to  sanction  the  Pharisaic  austeri- 
ties practised  in  relation  to  a  day  made  for 
the  highest  interest  of  man; — that  there  is 
proof  abundant  that  the  apostles  did  introduce 
and  establish  the  observance  of  a  seventh  day 
of  rest,  to  be  appropriated  to  the  purposes  of 
divine  worship; — that  the  first  day  of  the 
week  was  religiously  observed,  from  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ,  diid  took  the  denomination 


74 

of  the  Lord's  Day.  The  silence  spoken  of  is 
only  apparent.  Paul,  in  his  epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  has  entered  into  an  elaborate 
argument  to  show  that  there  remains  under 
the  Christian  dispensation  the  keeping  of  a 
Sabbath.*  There  is  no  proof  whatever  that 
Christians  in  the  apostles'  days  neglected 
the  worship  of  God,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  or  appropriated  it  to  purposes  of  busi- 
ness and  recreation.  There  is  proof  to  the 
contrary  in  the  New  Testament — incidental, 
it  is  true,  but  that  is  often  the  strongest  and 
most  satisfactory.  The  amount  of  it  is,  that 
predictions  had  long  before  given  notice  that 
the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection  should  become 
the  day  for  public  worship, — that  in  the  days 
when  the  gospel  should  triumph  the  Sabbath 
would  be  religiously  kept, — and  that,  although 
the  use  and  intention  of  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
day  on  which  it  should  be  kept,  should  vary 
somewhat  from  that  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath, — 

*  Heb.  iv.  4—9. 


75 

yet  a  sabbath  would  be  kept, — which  things  in 
due  season  occurred,  of  which  allusions  and 
incidents  noticeable  in  the  New  Testament  fur- 
nish satisfactory  proof.  The  appearances  of 
Christ  to  his  apostles  were  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week — the  apostles  observed  this  day  reli- 
giously— the  churches  came  together  on  that 
day — and  the  Spirit  was  poured  out  on  that 
day. 

But,  passing  from  the  New  Testament  to 
ecclesiastical  history,  the  testimony  is  very 
explicit.  Ignatius,  Justin  Martyr,  Theophilus 
and  others  assert,  it  was  religiously  kept.  For 
a  season  the  primitive  Christians  kept  both  the 
Jewish  and  the  Christian  Sabbath;  but  being 
vexed  with  Jewish  proselytists,  who  wished  to 
retain  the  abrogated  ritual  of  Moses,  Paul  sat 
himself  in  direct  opposition  to  them,  denying 
the  soundness  of  their  festival  days  called  sab- 
baths. By  degrees  the  change  from  the  seventh 
to  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  from  a  Jewish 
to   a  Christian  Sabbath,   was    accomplished. 


70 

Jewish  prejudices  were  for  a  season  treated 
with  respect,  and  contentions  and  strifes  by 
this  means  suppressed.  Christ  and  his  apos- 
tles attacked  not  the  prejudices  of  their  nation, 
but  they  acted  promptly  and  uniformly,  so 
that  without  any  confusion  or  dispute,  by  the 
time  the  Jewish  commonwealth  was  over- 
thrown, the  Christian  Sabbath  obtained  ascen- 
dancy throughout  all  the  Gentile  churches,  till 
finally  Constantino  the  Great,  the  first  Chris- 
tian emperor,  passed  laws  for  its  protection 
and  observance. 

Christ  had  declared,  in  the  strongest 
terms,  that  he  came  not  to  destroy  the 
law,  but  to  fulfil  it — that  whoever  would 
favour  and  teach  the  violation  of  the  least 
of  these  precepts  would  be  repudiated  by 
him, — and  that  till  heaven  and  earth  should 
pass  aw^ay,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  should  in  no 
wise  pass  from  the  laio,  till  all  be  fulfilled.* 
He  did  not   destroy  the   least   of  the  moral 

*  Mutt.  V.  18,  19. 


77 

obligations  which  bind  mankind,  nor  should 
they  ever  be  destroyed.  It  is  for  those  who 
deny  the  moral  obligation  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath  to  reconcile  their  views  with  the  word 
of  God,  especially  with  the  assertions  of  Christ 
in  this  respect.  We  cannot.  So  far  from 
Christ's  having  destroyed  the  obligations  and 
motives  for  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath,  he 
has  rather  increased  them.  Any  changes 
made  in  the  day,  have  not  aflected  the  general 
moral  obligation  to  sanctify  the  seventh  part 
of  our  time.  There  is,  therefore,  nothing  to 
be  found  in  the  record,  which  disproves  the 
obligation  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  but  enough  to 
prove  it.  Nor  is  there  any  thing  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  society.  The  exigencies  remain 
the  same,  and  demand  a  Sabbath  as  impe- 
riously as  ever.  There  remaineth,  therefore, 
says  the  apostle  Paul,  a  rest  for  the  people  of 
God — his  ow^n  language  is  the  keeping  of  a 
Sabbath,  whose  perpetuity  he  was  endeavour- 
G  2 


78 

ing  to  establish.     Wherefore,  at  every  point 
the  obhgation  of  the  Sabbath  is  defended. 

The  moral  obligation  to  observ^e  the  day, 
and  the  design  of  its  author  in  its  consecra- 
tion, being  ascertained,  it  is  easy  to  discover 
in  what  manner  it  should  be  observed.  Being 
a  day  of  rest  from  worldly  care  and  animal 
labour,  for  the  purpose  of  religious  and  social 
worship,  whatever  interferes  with  this  must  be 
sinful.  All  business,  diversions,  or  animal  and 
intellectual  indulgences  not  consistent  with 
and  conducive  to  the  worship  of  God,  being 
contrary  to  God's  design,  and  to  the  character 
of  the  Sabbath,  render  the  perpetrator  guilty 
of  desecrating  that  holy  day.  lie  that  will 
neglect  to  observe  this  day,  as  God  ordained 
it,  viz.  by  rendering  to  him  the  homage  due 
to  his  excellence,  or  who  perverts  it  to  his 
own  purposes  of  festivity  or  recreation,  is  at 
war  with  God.  He  is  a  robber  in  the  sight 
of  God,  having  defrauded  him  of  time  he 
claims   as   his    own,  and    never  granted    to 


79 

man.  He  is  an  enemy  of  social  order  and 
the  public  weal,  for  he  contributes,  as  far  as 
his  example  goes,  to  withdraw  the  most 
powerful  restraint  and  valuable  expedient 
God  has  adopted,  to  prevent  and  counteract 
the  crimes  of  men.  And  he  that  will  consult 
his  own  profit  by  engaging  in  business  which 
requires  the  labour  of  others  on  that  day — who 
will  countenance,  and  take  part  with,  and  hold 
stock  in  companies,  such  as  rail-road  cars  and 
stages,  steamboats,  and  the  like,  which  derive 
profit  to  the  owners  from  the  profanation  of 
the  Sabbath,  makes  himself  doubly  guilty. 
He  is  not  only  warring,  himself  against  God, 
but  aiding  all  he  can  to  enlist  others,  and 
afford  facilities  for  them  to  corrupt  themselves 
and  profane  the  day  of  God.  Doubtless  in 
God's  sight,  much  if  not  most  of  the  crimes 
committed  on  the  Sabbath  in  the  vicinity  of 
our  large  cities,  and  which  are  incident  to  the 
gathering  together  of  promiscuous  masses  of 
the  population  on  that  day,  in  our  villages,  the 
intemperance,  profanity,  revelling,  rioting,  dc- 


80 

bauchery,  and  hardening  of  the  heart  to  which 
the  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  leads,  are 
rightly  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  men  who 
create  and  form  companies,  or  own  and  em- 
ploy their  stock  in  affording  facilities  for  the 
profanation  of  that  day.  And  they  should  be 
held  guilty  in  the  eyes  of  their  country;  for 
they  sanction  and  promote  indulgences  and 
vices  which  endanger  the  safety  of  property, 
which  neutralize  moral  and  social  restraints, 
and  which  strike  directly  against  the  well- 
being  and  existence  of  sound  and  necessary 
government.  True  patriotism,  not  to  say 
Christianity,  requires  us  to  resist  the  influence 
of  lofty  and  corrupting  example.  Unfortu- 
nately for  the  repose  and  permanent  interest 
of  our  beloved  country,  the  crime  of  Sabbath- 
breaking  has  received  the  sanction  of  men 
high  in  places  of  trust  and  power,  and  is  be- 
coming every  year  more  and  more  prevalent. 
No  people  can  long  make  war  upon  the  insti- 
tutions of  God  with  impunity.  In  mercy  to 
the  community,  he  is  now  pleading  with  us,  by 


81 

the  voice  of  his  providence,  and  seeking  to 
arrest  the  growing  desecration  of  the  Sabbath. 
Alarming  accidents,  sudden  and  afflicting 
deaths,  occurring  on  the  Sabbath,  among  those 
that  profane  it,  are  the  voice  of  God  remon- 
strating with  this  people  for  their  crimes.  The 
prevalence  of  the  vices  which  the  profanation 
of  the  Sabbath  fosters  will  lead  to  the  ruin  of 
any  nation.  At  what  instant  God  "  shall  speak 
concerning  a  nation,  and  concerning  a  king- 
dom, to  build  and  to  plant  it ;  if  it  do  evil  in 
his  sight,  that  it  obey  not  his  voice,  then  he 
will  repent  of  the  good  wherewith  he  said  he 
w^ould  benefit  them."* 

There  is  reason  to  fear,  that  this  nation  will 
afford  an  illustration  of  this  great  principle  of 
God's  moral  government.  There  is  evidently 
abroad  in  our  land,  the  spirit  of  resistance 
against  the  authority  of  God.  Not  only  is 
violence  and  oppression,  lewdness  and  avarice, 

.?cr.  x\n\.  9,  10. 


82 

becoming  more  and  more  prevalent,  but  a 
direct  warfare  has  been  waged  against  the 
Sabbath,  the  grand  conservative  of  public 
morals,  which  God,  with  its  appropriate  ac- 
companiments, has  ordained  for  the  interests 
of  society.  Our  highest  legislative  authority 
has  legalized  its  profanation,  and  set  an  exam- 
ple of  utter  disrespect  for  its  sacred  character 
and  claims.  Our  country,  through  its  public 
officers,  and  by  its  statutes  on  this  subject,  as 
well  as  by  the  dissipation  and  excess  of  thou- 
sands of  its  population,  is  placed  in  the  attitude 
of  direct  and  open  rebellion  against  the  God 
of  Heaven,  the  great  Governor  among  the 
nations. 

This  course  cannot  long  be  persisted  in  with 
impunity.  The  dispensations  of  Providence 
have  already  given  indications  that  God  has  a 
controversy  with  us  on  this  subject.  When 
he  remonstrated  with  Israel  on  this  subject,  he 
promised  great  public,  poHtical  and  religious 


83 

prosperity  to  them,  on  condition  of  their  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath.*  "  But,"  added  he, 
"  if  ye  will  not  hearken  unto  me  to  hallow  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  not  to  bear  a  burden,  even 
entering  in  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  on  the 
Sabbath  day;  then  will  I  kindle  a  fire  in  the 
gates  thereof,  and  it  shall  devour  the  palaces 
of  Jerusalem,  and  it  shall  not  be  quenched." 
And  he  did  so. 

Whether  destructive  conflagrations  are  to 
be  regarded  as  the  appropriate  visitation  of 
heaven  for  the  crime  of  Sabbath  breaking 
noiv,  we  shall  not  delay  to  inquire.  But  it  is 
worthy  of  observation,  that  there  have  been 
some  facts,  on  this  subject,  developed  in  the 
history  of  this  nation,  which  favour  the  idea, 
that  God  has  not  ceased  to  punish,  in  this  way, 
the  crime  of  Sabbath  breaking.  The  confla- 
grations of  the  capitol,  and  the  public  build- 
ings, at  Washington,  have  been  consequent 
on  the  desecration   of  the   Sabbath,  by  the 

*  Jer.  xvii.  24—27. 


84 

transportation  of  the  mail.  And  some  of  the 
most  destructive  fires,  in  several  of  our  cities, 
have  occurred  since  this  crime  has  become  so 
prevalent.  At  all  events,  in  other  respects, 
there  is  proof  that  we  need  not  congratulate 
ourselves  as  free  from  danger. 

The  elements  of  mischief  are  extensively 
at  work  among  us.  A  few  turns  in  the  divine 
providence,  may  derange  and  disorganize  the 
fair  fabric  of  our  republic.  No  great  powers 
of  foresight  is  necessary  to  perceive  that,  if  a 
demoralizing  influence  spreads  through  the 
land,  it  cannot  fail,  more  speedily  than  in  any 
other  country,  to  affect  the  vital  functions  of 
our  government.  The  character  of  our  pub- 
he  oflicers  will  correspond  with  that  of  the 
majority  of  our  population.  Let  wicked  men 
throng  the  polls,  and  wicked  men  will  be  the 
successful  candidates  for  othce.  For,  "  when 
the  wicked  walk  on  every  side,  vile  men  are 
exalted." 


85  . 

A  corrupt  populace  can  be  easily  inflamed 
or  flattered,  and  violent  or  obsequious  men 
will  make  them,  very  readily,  the  instruments 
of  their  ambition.  Patriotism,  with  such, 
ceases  to  form  a  part  of  their  character.  It 
has  given  place  to  the  selfishness  of  aspiring 
demagogues,  and  to  the  desperation  of  dark 
conspirators,  and  of  loud  disunionists,  who 
have  every  thing  to  hope  for,  while  the  friends 
of  virtue,  liberty  and  independence,  have  every 
thing  to  fear. 

It  is  impossible,  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
that  our  civil  and  political  institutions  can 
long  survive  our  pubHc  morals.  It  is  just  as 
impossible  that  our  pubHc  morals  can  flourish, 
or  be  preserved  without  religion.  And  it  is,  fur- 
ther, as  impossible  that  religion  can  long  exist 
without  a  Sabbath.  To  notice  the  truth  of 
these  statements,  as  unfolded  in  the  history 
of  nations,  we  need  but  advert  to  the  exam- 
ples and  illustrations  furnished  on  every  hand, 


80 

in  that  of  individuals.  How  rapid  is  the  young 
sinner's  course  in  vice,  who  begins  without 
restraint  or  fear,  to  desecrate  the  Sabbath! 
How  numerous  are  ihe  confessions  made  upon 
"the  drop,"  by  those  who  were  adjudged  to 
death  by  the  laws  of  their  country  ;  who,  with 
the  crime  of  Sabbath  breaking,  began  that 
deep  and  dreadful  deterioration  which  led  to 
those  deserving  the  forfeiture  of  life,  at  the 
hands  of  the  incensed  justice  of  their  country! 
How  rapid  has  been  the  march  of  some  of  our 
cities  in  crime,  where  the  restraints  of  the 
Sabbath  have  been  thrown  oft1  And  how  des- 
titute of  religion  are  those  where  the  Sabbath 
has  been  forgotten,  or  is  unknown!  Let  the. 
Sabbath,  and  its  accompanying,  and  appropri- 
ate means  of  moral  influence  be  universally 
rejected,  and  half  a  century  shall  not  have 
passed  away  till  heathenism  and  idolatry,  with 
all  their  loathsome  sensuality  and  crimes,  shall 
have  become  naturalized  among  us.  The  gos- 
pel alone  is  the  great  reformer  of  mankind ; 


87 

but  without  a  Sabbath  the  gospel  can  exert 
but  little  permanent  or  extensive  influence. 
In  proportion  as  men  are  unenlightened  by  its 
truths,  uninfluenced  by  its  motives,  unapproach- 
able by  its  ministers,  and  unembarrassed  by 
the  standard  of  character,  and  by  the  restraints 
which  it  creates  in  a  community,  will  they  be 
immoral.  Who  are  the  dissipated,  the  de- 
bauched, the  drunken,  the  lewd,  the  gamblers, 
the  profane,  the  harpies  that  prey  upon  society, 
the  advocates  and  promoters  of  races  and 
duels,  of  theatres  and  brothels — but  irreligious 
men  ?  On  the  other  hand,  who  are  prompt  and 
zealous  to  discourage  vice,  promote  intelli- 
gence and  virtue,  and  difflise  true  happiness  ! 
Are  they  the  friends  or  the  enemies  of  a  Sab- 
bath ?     Let  observation  answer. 

Yet  are  religion  and  manly  zeal  for  the 
Sabbath,  that  great  bulwark  of  national  mo- 
rality, denounced  as  intolerance  and  treason ! 
Our  illustrious  Washington  has  denied  the  tri- 


88 

bute  of  patriotism  to  the  man  that  labours  to 
subvert  religion  and  morality,  which  he  calls 
"the  great  pillars  of  human  happiness;  the 
firmest  props  of  the  duties  of  men  and  citi- 
zens." Later  politicians,  devoid  of  the  patriot- 
ism and  philanthropy,  and  of  the  morality  and 
religion  of  Washington,  prefer  to  decry  these 
things,  and  studiously  shun  what  many  are 
wilHng  to  regard  as  "  puritanical  severity  and 
vulgar  fanaticism."  Has  it  then  been  disco- 
vered that  the  Sabbath,  and  all  its  moral  in- 
fluences are  unfriendly  to  human  happiness 
and  national  prosperity?  Or  has  its  frown 
upon  the  wicked  been  felt,  and  the  vain  at- 
tempt been  made  to  convert  our  legislative 
halls  into  a  refuge  and  defence  against  its 
scowl  and  menaces?  A  few  years  will  de- 
monstrate which,  and  prove  in  this,  as  in  other 
countries,  that  no  people  ever  yet  trampled  on 
the  Sabbath  with  impunity. 

In  the  mean  time,  let  the  Christian  commu- 


89 

nity  assert  the  claims  of  a  prostrate  Sabbath, 
and  cultivate  that  true  and  only  patriotism 
which,  by  the  practice  of  morality  and  reli- 
gion, and  by  their  extensive  diffusion,  may 
serve  to  avert  the  wrath  impending.  What 
confidence  can  be  reposed  in  the  patriotism 
and  professions  of  those  who  will  violate  their 
obligations  to  God,  and  prostitute  to  secular 
uses  the  day  that  he  holds  sacred? 

The  Christian's  confidence  should  be  in  God; 
and  should  be  sustained  by  a  consistent,  un- 
spotted and  intrepid  life  of  hohness.  He  should 
be  aware  that  he  has  nothing  to  expect  from 
men  who  disrespect  his  God.  But  while  he 
pities  the  rebellious,  and  deprecates  their  in- 
fluence, let  him  make  his  strong  appeal  to  God, 
and  follow  up  that  appeal  by  active  and  un- 
tiring efforts  to  enlighten  and  correct  the  pub- 
He  mind,  by  means  of  his  example,  of  personal 
converse,  and  of  the  beneficent  operation  of 
Infant  and  Sunday  schools,  of  Bible,  Tract, 
h2 


90 

and  Missionary  societies,  and  of  the  patronage 
of  science  and  the  arts,  by  the  rejection  of 
an  immoral,  hcentious  and  unsafe  Hterature, 
and  by  the  diffusion  of  the  blessings  of  a 
sound  and  salutary  education,  and  of  evan- 
gelical religion. 

As  he  loves  his  country,  and  fears  his  God  ; 
and  as  he  would  be  faithful  to  Jesus  Christ  his 
Saviour,  and  put  honour  on  his  name,  let  him 
beware  how  he  cherishes  the  spirit  of  sectar- 
ism,  which  is  the  very  spirit  of  faction,  and 
contributes  by  his  exclusive  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  his  own  religious  sect,  to  secure 
the  triumphs  of  infidelity.  The  church  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  he  has  purchased  with  his 
blood,  is  not  this  or  the  other  sect,  whatever 
may  be  the  boastful  pretensions  of  any;  but 
all,  of  every  name  and  of  every  nation,  who 
truly  love,  and  confide  in,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
obey  his  commands.  He  forgets  alike  his  duty 
to  his  country,  and  to  the  church  of  God,  who 


91 

confines  his  influence  and  benevolent  efforts, 
exclusively  to  his  own  ecclesiastical  denomi- 
nation. Wide  as  the  v^orld  is  the  Christian's 
sphere  of  labour,  and  diffusive  as  the  light 
should  be  his  moral  influence. 

Our  main  and  only  security,  under  God,  is 
the  diff'usion  of  sound  and  virtuous  principles 
in  the  community.  Much  in  this  way  is  do- 
ing, though  violently  and  malignantly  assailed. 
Appeals  to  God  for  his  Spirit,  and  the  use  of 
all  appropriate  means  for  his  abundant  and 
universal  eflfusion,  sustained  by  humble,  holy, 
and  consistent  examples,  may  yet  save  the 
Sabbath,  and  save  our  country.  But,  alas  ! 
there  is  precisely  here  a  deep  and  dreadful 
defect.  The  cause  of  piety  languishes,  the 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  withheld,  and 
iniquity  abounds  because  the  love  of  many  has 
waxed  cold.  The  church,  the  professed  friends 
of  the  Sabbath,  have  given  occasion  to  its  ene- 
mies to  blaspheme.     Many  that  once    "  ho- 


92 

noured  her,  despise  her,  because  they  have 
seen  her  nakedness."  There  has  not  been  that 
consistent  and  conscientious  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  on  the  part  of  many  professors  of 
rehgion,  which  there  ought  to  have  been.  Nor 
has  there  been  that  united  and  undaunted 
testimony  in  its  favour,  from  the  different 
religious  sects.  Even  on  this,  as  on  other 
subjects,  there  have  been  untenderness  and 
unfaithfulness;  and  sectarian  jealousies  and 
animosities  have  been  evinced,  which  have 
contributed  greatly  to  its  growing  desecration. 

In  the  midst  of  prevalent  infidelity,  the  Bible 
will  not  be  consulted.  Its  influence  will  not, 
therefore,  be  directly  felt,  (christian  men  and 
women  must  act  out  the  spirit  and  principles 
of  the  Bible  before  an  unbelieving  world,  ex- 
hibit the  example  it  inculcates,  and  show  that 
they  feel  the  authority  of  God  and  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  superior  to  that  of  any  and  every  eccle- 
siastical sect,  if  thev  would  exert  an  efficient 


93 

and  salutary  influence.  There  is  yet  a  moral 
power  in  the  church,  sufficient,  if  rightly  di- 
rected, to  recover  a  captive  and  a  prostrate 
Sabbath,  from  the  hands  of  its  enemies.  There 
is  yet  an  energy  in  the  arm  of  the  Christian's 
God,  that  can  put  to  flight  all  his  foes.  And 
with  him  is  "  the  residue  of  the  Spirit,"  with- 
out whose  influence  all  our  testimony,  and  ap- 
peals, and  efforts  will  be  in  vain.  To  be  the 
medium  of  this  influence  and  energy  should 
be  the  aim  of  every  Christian;  but  for  this  he 
must  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the  world. 

The  inconsistent  conduct  and  example,  the 
mawkish  indifference,  and  the  sectarian  jeal- 
ousies of  Christian  professors,  aid  the  anti- 
Sabbath  cause  more  than  a  volume  of  argu- 
ments. Whoso  professes  religion,  and  yet  will 
violate  the  Sabbath  day,  by  travelHng  or  pur- 
suing his  worldly  business,  or  by  seeking  his 
recreation  and  pleasure  on  it,  or  by  allowing 
his  children  and  family  to  trample  it  under 


94 

their  feet ;  who  will  countenance  and  co-ope- 
rate with  those  that  make  its  profanation  sub- 
serve their  profit ;  who  will  pour  contempt  on 
those  Christians,  and  suspect  and  impeach  their 
motives  who  seek  to  promote  its  observance; 
or  who  will  appropriate  it  to  purposes  of  fes- 
tivity and  idleness,  or  any  thing  foreign  from 
its  design,  will,  probably,  by  one  act,  do  more 
mischief  than  his  subsequent  life  may  be  able 
to  counteract.  The  unbelieving  world  must 
be  enlightened  by  means  of  the  church,  and 
that  chiefly  through  the  consistent  and  uniform 
deportment,  and  the  beneficent  and  Christ-like 
spirit,  of  its  members.  There  must  be  the 
meek,  but  firm,  asserting  of  the  Sabbath's 
claims ;  the  calm,  humble,  forgiving,  but  in- 
trepid resistance  of  every  attempt  to  dese- 
crate it;  and  the  benevolent  and  prayerful 
effort  to  convince  those  that  err. 

The  Christian's  God  is  his  host:  and  while 
he  marches  under  his  banner,  he  need  not  be 


95 

dismayed.  The  God  of  Israel  has  fought  a 
thousand  battles,  and  always  triumphed.  Infi- 
delity may  vaunt  itself,  and,  with  the  aid  of 
petty  sectaries,  pour  contempt  and  obloquy  on 
the  Christian  and  the  Christian  name ;  yea, 
and  the  maddened,  unbelieving  world,  the  en- 
raged and  violent  mob,  may  draw  the  perse- 
cuting sword,  and  bathe  it  in  the  blood  of  its 
slaughtered  victims,  but  our  Redeemer  is  al- 
mighty, and  will  prevail.  Let  the  Christian 
trust  him  with  every  interest:  roll  all  his  cares 
on  him,  and  follow  whithersoever  he  leads. 
It  is  his  cause  ho  has  espoused,  and  it  shall 
prevail.  The  word  of  God  stands  pledged  for 
it.  "  If  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the 
Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy- 
day  ;  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  Delight,  the  Holy 
of  the  Lord,  Honourable;  and  shalt  honour 
him,  not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding 
thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own 
words :  then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the 
Lord;  and  I  will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the 


96 

high  places  of  the  earth,  and  feed  thee  with 
the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father:  for  the  mouth 
of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.  Behold,  the  Lord's 
hand  is  not  shortened,  that  it  cannot  save ;  nei- 
ther his  ear  heavy,  that  it  cannot  hear."  Is. 
Iviii.  13,  14,  &  lix.  1. 


AN    APPEAL    TO    CHRISTIANS,    ON    THE 
OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  SABBATH. 


BY  ALBERT  BARNES. 


A  DISCOURSE, 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 
PHILADELPHIA,  JULY  10,  1836. 


Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. — Ex.  xx.  8. 


I  WISH  to  address  some  remarks  particularly 
to  Christians,  on  the  subject  referred  to  in  this 
text.  There  are  some  special  reasons  why  it 
should  be  brought  particularly  before  their 
minds;    and  why  it  demands  their  attention. 

There  is  one  thing  which  is  perfectly  plain, 
and  which  should  always  be  assumed  in  all 
discussions  on  this  subject.     It  is,  that  every 


100 

true  Christian  will  delight  in  the  sacred  rest 
which  is  furnished  by  the  Christian  Sabbath. 
On  this  day,  he  will  rejoice  that  he  is  permit- 
ted to  retire  from  the  world,  and  that  the  cares 
and  anxieties  of  life,  the  perplexing  scenes  of 
business,  and  the  purposes  of  gain  and  ambition 
are  made,  by  common  consent,  to  pause  in 
obedience  to  the  divine  commandment,  and  to 
give  him  leisure  for  personal  communion  with 
God.  Its  sacred  rest  is  dear  to  his  heart.  On 
this  day,  more  than  on  any  other  day  of  the 
week,  he  is  permitted  to  rise  above  the  world, 
to  hold  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  ripen  for  the  rest 
which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  On 
this  day,  he  rejoices  in  the  privilege  of  more 
prolonged  and  sweet  secret  devotion ;  in  the 
perusal  of  the  word  of  God;  in  the  opportunity 
for  reflection  and  self-examination;  in  the 
services  of  the  sanctuary;  in  the  blessings 
which  result  to  his  own  soul  from  breaking 
away  from  the  agitating  and  conflicting  cares 


101 

of  life,  and  in  the  privilege  of  guiding  his 
family  in  the  ways  of  virtue  and  salvation. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  respecting  the  di- 
vine origin  and  authority  of  this  insthution, 
this  one  thing,  I  think,  is  clear  beyond  the  pos- 
sibility of  doubt,  that  a  true  Christian  will 
esteem  it  not  a  burden,  but  an  invaluable  pri- 
vilege to  close  up  his  worldly  affairs  one  day 
in  seven,  and  to  seek  to  elevate  his  feelings 
above  this  world,  and  prepare  for  the  skies. 
So  obvious  is  this,  that  it  cannot  be  made  the 
subject  of  a  moment's  debate,  that  if  a  man 
finds  no  pleasure  in  the  sacred  duties  of  this 
day;  and  the  day  is  to  him  wearisome  and  a 
burden,  it  amounts  to  the  fullest  proof  that  he 
has  no  well-founded  claim  to  the  name  of  a 
Christian. 

Thus  far  all  is  clear.     Into  the  reasons  why 
the  Christian  supposes  this  to  be  a  divine  in- 
stitution, and  that  its  observance  is  required 
I  2 


102 

by  divine  authority,  I  do  not  propose  now  to 
€nten  I  speak  only  of  the  views  and  feelings 
which,  I  suppose,  all  Christians  must  have  on 
this  subject,  and  which  we  are  to  assume  they 
are  prepared  to  act  on,  and  to  defend.  I 
should  as  soon  deem  it  necessary  to  prove  to 
a  Christian  that  he  was  bound  to  love  God,  to 
honour  a  father,  to  abstain  from  theft  and 
murder,  to  be  a  man  of  truth  and  chastity,  as 
to  labour  to  prove  to  him  that  he  ought  to 
regard  and  keep  holy  the  Sabbath  day.  Nay, 
I  should  suppose  that  this  command  would  be 
one  that  would  least  of  all  need  the  aid  of  rea- 
soning to  lead  Christians  to  its  observance. 
There  is  in  this  sacred  rest  so  much  of  privi- 
lege; there  is  so  much  that  accords  with  the 
elevated  feelings  of  a  new  nature ;  there  is  so 
much  that  represents  the  peace  of  heaven; 
there  is  so  much  that  gives  consolation  to  the 
mind,  and  that  furnishes  strength  against 
temptation ;  so  much  that  is  fitted  to  meet  the 
obvious  and  constant  bad  influences  of  the 


103 

world  on  the  heart,  that  we  are  to  suppose  its 
return  will  be  hailed  with  delight,  not  that  its 
observance  is  to  be  urged  by  cold  and  abstract 
argumentation.  Wherever  I  meet  a  Christian 
I  assume  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  he  de- 
lights in  the  Sabbath,  and  feels  the  obligation 
to  keep  it  holy,  just  as  much  as  I  assume  that 
he  feels  the  obligation  to  be  a  man  of  integrity 
and  veracity  in  his  dealings.  And  wherever 
true  religion  prevails,  it  is  to  be  assumed  that 
it  will  lead  to  the  observance  of  this  day,  just 
as  it  will  lead  to  a  life  of  purity  and  of  prayer. 
And  it  is  to  be  assumed,  also,  that  all  attempts 
by  arguments  among  professing  Christians,  to 
weaken  the  authority  for  the  observance  of 
this  day,  are  evidence  prima  facie  of  a  low 
state  of  religion  in  the  soul,  if  not  of  a  total 
ignorance  in  regard  to  its  true  nature  and 
power.  Such  professed  Christians  are  to  be 
met,  not  with  argument  to  prove  that  the 
fourth  commandment  is  of  binding  obligation, 
but  with  entreaties  to  examine  the  foundation 


104 

of  their  hope  for  eternity,  and  to  inquire  whe- 
ther they  have  ever  known  any  thing  of  the 
power  of  rehgion  on  the  heart. 

No  man  can  look  over  this  land  without 
seeing  that  the  Sabbath  is  in  more  danger  than 
all  the  other  institutions  of  Christianity.  It  is 
in  danger  of  becoming  swallowed  up  in  the 
vortex  of  business,  and  the  whirl  of  amuse- 
ment. And  the  question  is  submitted  to  this 
generation,  to  be  settled  for  ever,  whether  this 
day  is  to  be  observed,  or  is  to  be  universally 
desecrated;  and,  in  connexion  with  that,  whe- 
ther the  Christian  religion  is  to  be  perpetuated 
or  abolished. 

Since  these  things  are  so,  it  becomes  our 
duty  to  address  Christians  with  great  earnest- 
ness and  frequency  on  the  subject.  There  are 
special  reasons  why  it  is  brought  before  you 
now;  and  to  some  of  those  reasons  I  invite 
your  particular  attention.     Those  reasons  it 


105 

shall  be  the  design  of  this  discourse  to  state. 
I  address  Christians  on  the  subject,  because 
they  are  particularly  concerned,  I  address 
them  because  many  of  them  have  been  guilty 
of  laxness  and  of  sin  in  regard  to  it.  I  ad- 
dress them  because  it  would  be  useless  to 
attempt  to  address  the  disregarders  of  this 
day.  They  are  this  day  amidst  scenes  of 
amusement,  riot,  revelry,  profaneness,  and  in- 
temperance; and  the  voice  of  the  ministry 
cannot  reach  them.  The  reasons  why  I  now 
address  you  on  this  subject,  I  will  proceed  to 
specify,  and  illustrate. 

I.  The  first  is,  that  if  the  institution  of  the 
Sabbath  is  abolished  the  Christian  rehgion  will 
be  abolished  with  it.  The  question  whether 
this  day  is  to  be  observed  or  desecrated  is  just 
a  question  of  Hfe  and  death  in  regard  to  Chris- 
tianity. This  is  so  obvious  that  it  scarcely 
needs  any  attempt  to  prove  it.  Without  a 
Sabbath,  our  public  institutions,  on  the  subject 


106 

of  religion  would  cease ;  our  Sabbath-schools 
be  disbanded;  our  sanctuaries  closed,  and  all 
the  means  of  grace  arrested.  If  the  Sabbath 
be  abolished,  what  hold  can  Christianity  have 
on  man?  What  way  of  access  to  the  hearts 
and  consciences?  How  shall  the  arguments 
for  its  truth  be  presented  ?  How  shall  its  moral 
precepts  be  brought  before  the  mind?  How 
shall  its  high  hopes,  its  solemn  appeals  and 
sanctions  be  urged?  And  how  shall  its  stern 
rebukes  of  guilt  be  made  to  fall  on  the  ears 
and  the  hearts  of  men?  If  you  close  your 
churches,  and  your  Sabbath-schools,  there  is 
no  other  effectual  way.  Nothing  is  plainer  than 
this.  The  whole  history  of  the  world  shows 
that  where  the  Sabbath  is  observed  religion 
flourishes ;  where  it  is  not,  religion  dies  away, 
and  is  extinguished.  We  might  appeal,  here, 
to  every  man's  observation,  and  ask  him  to 
recall  the  memory  of  a  place  where  there  is 
no  Sabbath,  and  the  scenes  which  he  witness- 
ed there.     Was  the  voice  of  prayer   heard 


107 

there?  Was  God  feared  and  honoured?  Did 
meekness,  and  temperance,  and  chastity,  and 
justice,  and  honesty  abound?  Or  was  the 
place  distinguished  for  crime,  and  sensuahty, 
and  profaneness,  and  disorder?  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  there  ever  been  an  instance 
where  this  day  has  been  observed,  that  it  has 
not  been  followed  by  the  virtues  that  Chris- 
tianity produces,  and  the  blessings  which  indus- 
try, and  temperance,  and  piety  carry  in  their 
train?  This  appeal  is  made  with  the  utmost 
confidence ;  and  the  friends  and  the  enemies  of 
the  gospel  are  invited  to  examine  this  point  at 
leisure. 

Well  do  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  in  these 
times,  know  what  they  are  about.  Attempts 
were  made,  in  former  generations,  to  destroy 
the  gospel  by  the  sword  and  the  faggot,  and 
all  such  attempts  were  foiled.  Imperial  power 
attempted  to  crush  it;  but  imperial  force  found 
its  arm  too  weak  to  contend  with  God.    Ar- 


108 

gument  and  sophism  were  employed,  ridicule 
lent  its  aid,  and  malice  frowned,  and  contempt 
pointed  the  finger  of  scorn,  but  all  was  in  vain. 
Christianity  has  survived  all  these,  and  would 
survive  them  to  the  end  of  time.  But  there  is 
one  weapon  which  the  enemy  of  religion  has 
employed  to  obliterate  Christianity,  and  which 
has  never  been  employed  but  wdth  signal  suc- 
cess. It  is  the  attempt  to  corrupt  the  Christian 
Sabbath;  to  make  it  a  day  of  festivity;  to 
convince  Christians  that  its  obligation  has 
ceased;  to  induce  them  to  mingle  in  the  gay 
scenes  of  pleasure,  or  the  exciting  plans  of 
gain  and  ambition;  and  this  has  done  what  no 
argument,  no  sophistry,  no  imperial  power 
has  been  able  to  accomplish.  The  "  Book  of 
Sports"  did  more  to  destroy  Christianity  than 
all  the  ten  persecutions  of  the  Roman  empe- 
rors; and  the  views  of  the  second  Charles  and 
his  court,  about  the  Lord's  day,  tended  more 
to  banish  religion  from  the  British  nation  than 
all  the  persecutions  of  Mary.    And  the  great 


109 

enemy  of  God  and  of  liberty,  in  this  western 
empire,  understands  how  to  meet  Christianity 
here.  He  knows  that  it  will  not  be  easy  to 
kindle  here  the  flames  of  persecution,  and  to 
destroy  religion  by  the  fires  of  martyrdom. 
And  well,  too,  he  knows  that  it  is  too  late  to 
attempt  to  annihilate  it  by  sophistry,  and  ridi- 
cule, and  argument.  It  has  passed  through 
too  many  such  trials,  and  come  out  of  them  all 
unscathed.  But  what  could  be  done?  Was 
there  no  new  form  of  opposition  in  which  reli- 
gion might  be  met  in  the  new  world;  no  vital 
part  of  Christianity  that  could  be  reached;  no 
blow  that  could  be  struck  that  would  wither 
its  rising  power,  and  lay  it  prostrate  in  the 
dust?  There  was  one  experiment  that  could 
be  made.  Over  these  broad  and  ample  states 
and  territories  men  might  be  sent  in  search  of 
gain,  regardless  of  the  Sabbath.  These  ma- 
jestic streams,  presenting  long  and  laborious 
voyages,  might  be  ascended  regardless  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  day.     Men  might  be  urged 

K 


no 

away,  by  the  hope  of  weahh,  from  the  peace- 
ful scenes  where  a  Sabbath  shed  repose  on  a 
village,  or  the  Sabbath  bell  summoned  an  en- 
tire population  to  worship.  The  nation  might 
be  roused  by  the  love  of  gold;  and  enterprise, 
and  facilities  for  intercourse,  and  the  love  of 
travel  unsettle  almost  a  whole  population,  and 
transform  them  into  wandering  families  or 
tribes,  and  lead  them  to  trample  down  the 
barriers  of  virtue,  and  the  institutions  of  re- 
ligion. The  experiment  is  a  vast  one,  and  as 
fearful  as  it  is  vast.  It  involves  the  whole 
interest  of  this  nation.  And  it  will  settle  the 
fate  of  Christianity  in  this  land,  and  perhaps 
throughout  the  world. 

Not  few  hands  are  engaged  in  this,  but 
many.  It  is  not  the  mere  work  of  thought- 
lessness and  recklessness,  but  it  has  all  the 
marks  of  purpose  and  of  plan.  It  has  evi- 
dence of  being  under  the  direction  of  that 
master  mind  that  is  the  author  of  all  evil,  and 


Ill 

the  father  of  all  embarrassments  that  Chris- 
tianity has  ever  met  with.  And  the  attempt 
to  blot  out  the  Sabbath  from  this  land  evinces 
more  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and  more 
art,  and  cunning  than  the  persecutions  of  the 
Roman  emperors,  or  of  Mary;  than  the  so- 
phisms of  Gibbon  or  Hume ;  than  the  sneers 
of  Voltaire  or  Volney;  than  the  arguments  of 
Hobbes  or  of  Bolingbroke.  For  who  is  en- 
gaged in  this  land  in  the  work  of  blotting  out 
the  Sabbath?  Every  atheist  is  engaged  in  it, 
and  here  places  his  main  hope  of  success. 
Every  sceptic  is  engaged  in  it,  and  anticipates 
more  from  this  than  from  all  his  arguments. 
Every  profane  man,  and  every  intemperate 
man,  and  every  Hcentious  man  is  engaged  in 
it,  for  in  this  way  they  hope  that  all  restraints 
will  be  removed  from  unlimited  indulgence  in 
vice.  And  a  multitude  of  men  who  are  not 
willing  to  be  called  atheists  or  infidels,  or  pro- 
fane persons,  but  whose  heart  is  with  them  all 
in  their  leading  purposes,  unite  heartily  with 


112 

them  all  in  opposing  the  sacredness  of  this  day. 
In  one  word,  the  mass  of  busy,  active,  infidel, 
unprincipled  mind  in  this  nation ;  in  high  life 
and  in  low;  in  office  and  out  of  office;  in  city 
and  in  country,  that,  for  various  reasons, 
w^ould  desire  Christianity  to  be  extinguished, 
has  made  war  on  the  Sabbath,  and  is  prose- 
cuting that  war  by  all  the  means  that  have 
been  put  within  their  reach,  and  with  very 
augmenting  prospects  of  success. 

The  question  now  is  just  this.  Is  Christian- 
ity worth  preserving,  or  can  we  afford  to  see 
it  driven  from  our  land?  Are  we  so  secure 
without  it,  that  we  can  part  with  it  without 
regret;  or  is  it  worth  an  effort  to  save  it?  Is 
it  so  connected  with  our  municipal,  our  lite- 
rary and  our  national  institutions  as  to  con- 
stitute their  vitafity,  or  have  these  institutions 
the  power  of  self-existence,  and  can  they  as 
well  be  perpetuated  without  religion  ?  Has 
Christianity  such  a  connexion  with  pure  and 


113 

wholesome  morals  as  to  make  it  desirable  to 
retain  it  in  the  commonwealth,  or  will  our 
morals  be  equally  pure  without  it  ?  Can  this 
great  nation  be  governed  and  guarded  with- 
out a  God,  or  will  it  be  best  to  yield  obedience 
to  his  laws,  and  retain  the  religion  of  "  peace 
on  earth  and  good  will  to  men"  among  us,  and 
transmit  it  to  posterity  ?  These  are  questions 
that  are  connected  with  the  Sabbath ;  and  the 
course  which  is  pursued  in  regard  to  this  day, 
will  settle  them  all.  And  they  are  questions 
of  far  more  importance  than  this  thoughtless 
generation  seems  to  suppose. 

II.  The  second  reason  why  this  subject  de- 
mands, now,  the  special  attention  of  Christians 
is,  that  if  this  day  is  not  observed  as  holy  time, 
it  will  be  regarded  as  pastime;  if  not  a  day 
sacred  to  devotion,  it  will  be  a  day  of  recrea- 
tion, of  pleasure,  of  licentiousness.  The  Chris- 
tian Sabbath  is  not  essentially  an  arbitrary 
appointment,  for  it  is  required  in  the  very 
K  2 


114 

nature  of  mind  and  of  the  animal  economy, 
that  there  should  be  periodical  seasons  of  re- 
laxation. Nature  is  no  where  made  to  be 
always  taxed  to  incessant  effort.  There  is  not 
a  muscle  in  the  animal  economy  that  does  not 
demand  i^est  after  effort,  and  that  will  not  have 
it.  If  rest  is  not  granted  voluntarily,  it  will 
be  taken.  If  the  powers  of  nature  are  over- 
worked, and  taxed  without  relaxation,  they 
will  take  relaxation  by  disease,  and  perhaps 
when  too  late  to  repair  their  exhausted  ener- 
gies. This  great  law  of  nature  must  and  will 
be  obeyed.  And  if  the  frame  is  worn  and 
exhausted  without  this  relaxation,  the  conse- 
quence must  be  sickness,  or  rest  in  the  grave. 
The  late  Mr.  Wilberforce  declared  that  at  one 
period  of  his  parliamentary  career,  his  duties 
were  so  multiplied  and  exhausting,  that  his 
health  must  have  been  utterly  prostrated,  but 
for  the  seasonable  relief  which  the  Sabbath 
afforded  him.  There  is  not  an  animal  that 
will  endure  unceasing  exertion  without  repose; 


115 

and  God,  in  requiring  that  the  cattle  should  be 
allowed  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath,  has  spoken 
simply  according  to  the  laws  which  he  origi- 
nally impressed  on  the  brute  creation.  If  rest 
is  not  allowed  them  according  to  the  com- 
mandment, their  powers  are  exhausted,  and 
they  too  expire.  The  universe  is  fitted  up  for 
purposes  of  alternate  action  and  rest,  from  the 
first  beating  of  the  heart  of  infancy  to  the 
mightiest  efforts  of  the  giant;  from  the  insect 
that  flutters  and  dies,  through  all  the  grades  of 
the  animal  economy,  to  the  monarch  that  sits 
on  the  throne. 

In  demanding,  therefore,  that  the  animal 
and  mental  economy  shall  be  allowed  a  day  of 
periodical  repose,  God  has  acted  in  accord- 
ance with  the  great  law  of  nature.  There  is 
nothing  arbitrary  in  this  except  in  designating 
the  exact  day  which  shall  be  observed.  And 
all  that  is  arbitrary  in  this  is  a  consultation  of 
convenience,  that  one  may  not  disturb  another 


116 

by  toil  and  action  while  the  other  seeks  re- 
pose— ^just  as  he  has,  by  his  own  arrangement, 
ordained  the  animal  functions  so  that  all  are 
disposed  to  sleep  at  night. 

Further,  all  nations  and  people  have  had, 
and  w\\\  have,  a  periodical  season  of  relaxa- 
tion from  the  severity  of  toil.  This  was  the 
case  among  the  Jews  in  their  weekly  Sabbath ; 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in  their  nume- 
rous festivals  in  honour  of  the  gods ;  among 
the  heathen,  every  where,  in  the  honom'  of  their 
idols;  and  among  Mussulmen,  in  the  observ- 
ance of  their  weekly  day  of  devotion.  And 
so  deep  felt  is  the  necessity  of  this,  that  even 
the  actors  in  the  French  revolution  were  com- 
pelled to  appoint  one  day  in  ten  as  a  day  of 
relaxation  from  toil.  Whatever  may  be  the 
time  selected;  whether  one  day  in  seven,  or 
one  in  ten;  whether  a  day  in  honour  of  the 
Saviour,  or  in  honour  of  an  idol ;  or  whether 
it  be  a  mere  day  of  idleness,  without  any  rea- 


117 

son,  yet  such  days  will  be  observed  by  all 
people.  In  our  country  it  is  settled  that  that 
day  is  to  be  the  first  day  of  the  week.  This 
is  settled  by  the  force  of  ancient  custom ;  by 
the  statutes  of  the  land;  by  the  prevalence  of 
the  fear  of  God ;  and  by  the  lingerings  of  con- 
science among  those  who  have  not  wholly  cast 
off  all  the  restraints  of  religion.  It  is  to  be 
settled  and  established  in  this  land,  as  a  gene- 
ral custom,  that  on  this  day  toil  is  to  cease, 
and  men  will  give  themselves  to  other  pur- 
suits than  the  ordinary  employments  of  life. 
As  a  general  habit,  all  over  the  land,  our  stores 
and  counting-houses  will  be  shut;  our  schools 
will  be  disbanded;  our  courts  andpubhc  offices 
will  be  closed;  our  banks  and  insurance-offices 
will  cease  to  do  business ;  our  mechanics  will 
arrest  their  plans ;  the  student  will  lay  aside 
his  books,  and  the  farmer  leave  his  plough  in 
the  furrow,  and  the  woodman  lay  down  his 
axe,  and  the  apprentice  will  be  at  liberty  from 
toil,  and  even  the  servant,  and  the  slave,  to 


118 

some  extent,  be  free.  The  day  is  to  be  one, 
not  of  toil,  but  of  relaxation  and  of  rest.  It 
is  either  to  be  devoted  to  religion  or  to  such 
pursuits  and  pastimes  as  the  general  public 
sentiment  shall  direct  and  demand. 

Since  this  is  to  be  so,  the  question  is,  what 
is  to  be  the  effect  on  this  nation  if  the  day 
ceases  to  be  a  day  of  religious  observance? 
What  vv^ill  be  the  effect  of  releasing  our  entire 
population  of  many  millions  one-seventh  part 
of  the  time  from  toil,  and  from  any  settled  bu- 
siness of  life  ?  What  will  be  the  result  if  they 
are  brought  under  no  religious  instruction  and 
restraint,  and  if  the  day  is  not  observed  to 
worship  God,  and  to  advance  in  piety  and  the 
knowledge  of  salvation?  What  will  be  the 
effect  on  morals  ?  What  on  religion  ?  What 
on  sober  habits  -of  industry?  What  on  public 
virtue,  happiness,  and  patriotism?  Can  we 
safely  close  all  our  places  of  business ;  anni- 
hilate all  the  restraints  that  meet  us  during  the 


119 

six  days;  turn  out  a  vast  population  of  the 
young  with  nothing  to  do ;  and  abide  the  con- 
sequences of  such  a  universal  exposure  to  vice? 
These  are  grave  questions.  But  there  are 
questions  that  are  graver  still.  Can  we  safely 
dismiss  our  young  men,  all  over  the  land,  with 
sentiments  unfixed,  and  habits  of  virtue  un- 
formed, and  throw  them  one  day  in  seven 
upon  the  world,  with  nothing  to  do  hut  to  be 
tempted  and  led  to  imin  ?  Can  we  safely  re- 
lease our  sons,  and  our  apprentices,  and  our 
clerks  from  our  employ,  and  from  our  notice, 
and  send  them  forth  under  the  ragings  of  tu- 
multuous youthful  passion,  without  restraint? 
And,  most  of  all,  can  we  safely  open  fountains 
of  poison  at  every  corner  of  our  streets,  and 
in  every  village,  and  can  our  young  men  wan- 
der there  on  this  day  with  impunity  ?  And 
can  the  house  of  her  whose  "  steps  take  hold 
on  hell,"  stand  in  the  way  of  our  young  men 
on  such  a  day,  and  they  be  pure  in  virtue  ? 


120 

One  would  suppose  that  the  experiment 
which  has  already  been  made  in  this  city,  and 
in  other  cities  of  this  land,  would  be  sufficient 
to  remove  all  doubt  from  any  reasonable  mind 
on  this  subject.  For  we  are  making  the 
experiment  on  a  large  scale  every  Sabbath. 
Comparatively  few  of  our  young  men  are  in 
the  sanctuary  to-day.  Few  are  pursuing  any 
employment  that  shall  contribute  to  their  vir- 
tue or  salvation.  The  simple  matter  of  fact 
is,  that  in  this  city,  and  in  its  vicinity,  this  is 
extensively  a  day  of  gambling,  and  dissipa- 
tion, and  riot,  and  licentiousness,  and  revelry. 
It  is  an  incontrovertible  truth,  that  more  vice 
is  committed  on  this  day  than  on  all  other 
days  of  the  week ;  that  more  is  done  to  unsettle 
the  habits  of  virtue,  and  soberness,  and  industry 
than  in  all  the  week  beside;  that  more  is  done 
to  propagate  infidehty,  and  to  spread  licentious- 
ness, and  to  lay  the  foundation  for  future  igno- 
miny or  repentance  than  in  all  the  week  be- 
sides; that  more  is  done  to  retard  the  progress 


121 

of  the  temperance  reformation,  and  to  prepare 
candidates  for  the  penitentiary,  and  the  gal- 
lows, than  through  the  whole  six  days  beside. 
The  institution  of  the  Sabbath  is  an  institution 
of  tremendous  power  for  good  or  for  evil.  If 
for  good,  it  is  laid  at  the  foundation  of  our 
peace,  our  intelligence,  our  minds,  our  reli- 
gion. If  for  evil,  it  strikes  at  all  these;  nor  is 
there  any  possible  power  in  laws,  or  in  educa- 
tion, or  in  penalty,  that  can,  during  the  six 
days,  meet  and  counteract  the  evils  of  a  Sab- 
bath given  to  licentiousness  and  sin.  And  the 
question  before  this  nation  now  is,  not  whether 
this  day  is  to  be  a  day  of  labour,  and  sober 
industry,  for  that  is  settled ;  but  whether  it  is 
to  be  a  day  of  religion,  or  of  licentiousness  ; 
a  day  of  virtue  or  of  sin ;  and  whether,  if  it 
is  not  regarded  as  a  day  of  devotion,  the  na- 
tion can  bear  to  have  one  day  in  seven  a  day 
of  riot  and  disorder ;  a  Saturnalia,  occurring 
more  than  fifty  times  in  the  ye^r,  when  Rome, 

L 


122 

in  the  most  vigorous  days  of  her  virtue,  could 
scarcely  survive  the  effects  of  one. 

III.  A  third  reason  why  this  subject  de- 
mands the  special  attention  of  Christians  is, 
that  if  this  day  is  abolished  as  a  day  of  reli- 
gious observance,  pure  morals  v^^ill  be  oblite- 
rated wdth  it,  and  the  floodgates  of  vice  will 
be  opened  on  the  land.  The  Sabbath  is  fa- 
vourable to  the  spread  of  pure  morality,  and 
the  most  pure  and  elevated  principle  is  to  be 
found  in  those  places  that  keep  holy  the  Sab- 
bath day.  This  assertion  is  made  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  and  without  the  fear  of 
successful  contradiction,  and  you  are  invited 
to  test  the  truth  of  it  as  often  as  you  please. 
Go  through  the  country,  and  examine  the  ci- 
ties, the  towns,  and  the  villages ;  mingle  with 
the  inhabitants  of  every  grade,  and  converse 
with  them  freely;  learn  what  are  their  opi- 
nions and  their,  habits ;  examine  their  prisons 
and  their  almshouses ;  and  then  tell  me,  can- 


123 

didly,  where  you  find  most  industry,  most  sober 
habits,  most  contentment,  most  sobriety,  most 
purity,  most  intelligence,  and  most  freedom 
from  low  and  debasing  vices.  Tell  me,  can- 
didly, in  what  place  you  would  prefer  to  place 
a  son — or  to  make  the  question  more  striking — 
a  daughter,  to  be  trained  up.  Is  there  a  parent 
here  who  would  hesitate  a  moment  in  regard 
to  this?  The  virtues  of  domestic  life,  the  vir- 
tues which  go  to  adorn  human  intercourse, 
and  to  cement  society;  the  mild  and  gentle 
charities  of  life,  connected  with  the  fireside, 
with  the  intercourse  of  parents,  and  children, 
and  neighbours,  with  the  sick  room  and  with 
the  bed  of  death,  flourish  only  under  the  ge- 
nial influences  of  the  Sabbath,  and  with  those 
who  love  the  sound  of  the  Sabbath  bell.  The 
virtues  of  industry,  and  temperance,  and  love; 
of  honesty,  and  truth,  and  kindness  flourish 
there,  and  there  alone.  Can  you  pq^nt  me  to 
one  idle  and  dissolute  family;  to  one  single  dis- 
turber of  the  peace;  to  one  vicious  neighbour- 
hood; to  one  community  in  which  licentious- 


124 

ness  reigns,  where  the  Lord's  day  is  habitual- 
ly regarded  ?  Sir  Matthew  Hale  says,  "  that 
of  all  the  persons  convicted  of  capital  crimes, 
while  he  was  on  the  bench,  there  were  a  few 
only  who  were  not  ready  to  confess  that  they 
had  begun  their  career  of  wickedness  by  a 
neglect  of  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath."  The 
same  testimony  would  be,  probably,  borne, 
without  hesitation,  by  those  of  your  own 
judges,  who  have  ever  made  it  a  subject  of 
attention  to  inquire  into  the  origin  of  crime. 

Now,  if  the  Sabbath  is  obliterated,  it  will 
become  a  day,  not  of  morals,  but  of  immoral- 
ity. In  particular,  I  wish  to  say,  that  this  sub- 
ject appeals  to  young  men.  I  do  believe  that 
if  I  could  collect  around  me  all  the  young  men 
of  this  congregation,  and  of  this  city,  I  could 
convince  the  mass  of  them  that  the  only  se- 
curity for  their  correct  moral  character  and 
future  usefulness,  success  and  happiness,  is 
connected  with  the  proper  observance  of  this 


125 

day.  I  could  show  ihem  that  the  temptations 
which  are  spread  out  to  beguile  the  unwary, 
are  designed  by  cunning,  unprincipled,  and 
avaricious  men  for  them.  I  could  convince 
them  that  they  go  forth  from  their  fathers' 
dwellings  on  this  day,  or  from  the  sacred 
home,  or  sanctuary,  under  the  influence  of 
strong,  and  raging  desires ;  exposed  to  tempt- 
ations where  no  young  man  is  safe,  and  which 
would  not,  assuredly,  meet  him  here;  that 
they  go  beyond  th€  eye  of  a  father  and  a  coun- 
sellor; that  they  may  be  hurried  on  to  ex- 
penses and  to  vices  which  they  would  have 
been  shocked  to  have  anticipated;  and  that 
they  will  do  more  to  pain  a  mother's  heart, 
and  mar  their  own  future  peace,  on  such  a 
day,  than  on  all  other  days  beside.  For  be  it 
remembered,  that  no  young  man  thus  leaves 
his  father's  dwelling,  and  devotes  this  day  to 
amusement  and  revelry,  without  flying  in  the 
face  of  an  explicit  command  of  the  Most  High. 
And  be  it  remembered  that  the  ways  which 
L  2 


126 

God  has  ordained  are  those  which  tend  to 
promote  human  virtue  and  happiness.  If  any 
young  man  is  sceptical  on  this  subject,  let  me 
ask  you  to  go  with  me  to  the  penitentiary,  and 
walk  with  me  from  cell  to  cell,  and  inquire  of 
the  inmates,  when  their  career  of  guilt  com- 
menced. Or  go  and  converse,  in  his  sober 
moments,  with  the  drunkard,  and  ask  him 
when  he  first  trod  that  downward  way,  and 
the  answer  would  be,  in  a  large  majority  of 
cases,  on  the  Sabbath  day.  I  venture  here 
one  suggestion,  which  I  do  with  deep  feeling, 
though  not  with  entire  certainty  of  its  correct- 
ness. Of  that  you  can  better  judge.  It  is, 
that  it  is  rare  to  see  a  young  man  belonging  to 
this  city  intoxicated  in  public,  except  on  the 
Sabbath;  but  that  it  is  by  no  means  uncommon 
on  this  day.  I  admit,  indeed,  that  this  is  not 
common  in  our  city;  but  how  is  it  in  our 
neighbouring  villages?  O  how  many  a  mother 
may  there  be  who  would  bathe  her  cheeks 
with   tears;  and  how   many  a  sister,  whose 


127 

heart  would  burst  with  grief,  were  they  wit- 
nesses of  what  may  be  the  condition  of  a  son 
or  a  brother  this  day ! 

IV.  A  fourth  reason  why  this  subject  de- 
n^ands  the  attention  of  Christians  now,  is,  that 
there  is  a  state  of  things  in  the  land  that  is 
tending  to  obliterate  the  Sabbath  altogether. 

The  events  to  which  I  refer  are  too  well 
known  to  make  it  necessary  particularly  to 
dw^ll  upon  them.  I  may  just  refer  to  them. 
The  mail  is  carried  in  every  direction ;  and 
the  example  of  the  violation  is  thus  set  by  na- 
tional authority;  and  that  high  example  con- 
tinually presents  to  the  people  the  impression 
that  the  Sabbath  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  sa- 
cred time.  Every  post-office  is  opened,  and 
a  public  invitation  is  thus  given  to  obtain  the 
pohtical  and  commercial  intelligence,  and  to 
carry  the  ordinary  plans  and  feelings  of  the 
week  into  the  sacred  rest  of  this  day.     Some 


128 

years  since  the  voice  of  respectful  entreaty 
and  petition  was  addressed  to  the  national 
legislature  by  thousands  of  the  best  citizens  in 
the  land;  and  the  sacred  right  of  petition  was 
met  with  contempt  and  sarcasm.  In  every 
part  of  our  land  the  facihties  for  communica- 
tion have  been  augmented  with  a  rapidity  that 
excites  the  surprise  of  the  world.  By  canals 
and  rail-roads  distant  portions  of  our  country 
have  been  brought  together,  and  the  earth 
trembles  every  day  under  the  movements  of 
commerce  and  of  gain.  Against  these  na- 
tional improvements,  assuredly,  the  language 
of  complaint  and  regret  is  not  to  be  raised. 
They  should  be  rather  sources  of  gratitude  to 
the  God  who  has  thus  blessed  our  country. 
But  can  any  one  be  ignorant  that  each  canal, 
and  each  rail-road  furnishes  increased  facility 
for  Sabbath-violation;  and  that  they  are  fast 
tending  to  blot  the  Sabbath  from  the  land? 
Where,  in  these  public  conveyances,  is  the 
Sabbath  regarded?     Where  is  the  rail-road 


129 

car  that  is  arrested  by  the  return  of  this  sacred 
day?  Where  is  the  public  vehicle  that  is 
stopped  in  obedience  to  the  divine  command- 
ment? Is  it  not  known  that  these  vehicles  are 
crowded  with  a  denser  throng  on  this  day 
than  on  any  other  one  of  the  seven?  Had  it 
been  the  purpose  of  the  people  of  this  land  to 
abolish  the  Sabbath  altogether,  and  to  furnish 
the  most  rapid  and  extended  means  of  its  en- 
tire obliteration,  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  have  devised  a  more  certain  and  effectual 
way  than  that  which  is  now  employed. 

In  the  mean  time  there  is  an  augmented 
desire  for  motion  among  the  people  of  this 
land.  The  population  is  becoming  migratory; 
and  few  pause  to  rest  on  the  Sabbath.  The 
merchant  hastens  on  his  way  to  the  commer- 
cial emporium;  and  the  legislator  pursues  his 
journey  to  the  capital;  and  the  party  of  plea- 
sure urge  on  their  way  to  the  watering  place; 
and  he  who  eoes  to  visit  a  distant  friend  is 


130 

regardless  of  the  day  that  his  fathers  loved; 
and  our  sons  in  the  distant  west  are  travelling 
at  the  same  time,  beyond  the  sound  of  the  Sab- 
bath bell,  and  the  memory  of  the  sanctuary 
to  v^rhich  it  once  called  them ;  and  the  idle, 
and  the  dissipated,  and  the  profane,  and  the 
atheist,  and  even  the  Christian,  in  these  public 
vehicles  pursue  the  business  of  gain,  of  plea- 
sure, of  ambition. 

There  are  more  persons  in  steamboats  and 
cars  on  the  Sabbath  than  on  any  other  day  in 
the  v^eek.  For  one  man  w^ho  will  conscien- 
tiously stop  in  his  journey,  to  keep  holy  the  Sab- 
bath day,  there  are,  probably,  ten  who  will  be 
at  special  pains  to  violate  it,  either  by  com- 
mencing a  journey  on  that  day,  or  by  making 
it  the  occasion  of  an  excursion  of  pleasure. 
In  the  mean  time,  also,  there  is  every  where 
an  increased  laxness  of  moral  sentiment  among 
the  people  on  that  subject.  Our  fathers  would 
have  been  shocked  to  see  the  dregs  of  one  of 


131 

our  great  cities  poured  from  a  steamboat  to 
disturb  the  serenity  and  corrupt  the  morals  of 
a  country  village.  But  it  is  now  a  constant 
occurrence,  and  no  man  is  alarmed.  During 
the  times  that  tried  men's  souls,  when  the  inde- 
pendence of  this  country  was  at  stake,  our 
fathers  would  have  been  alarmed  had  the  con- 
gress of  the  Union  pursued  the  ordinary  busi- 
ness of  legislation  on  the  Sabbath,  and  the 
voice  of  remonstrance  would  have  been  heard 
throughout  the  land.  Yet  twice,  at  least,  dur- 
ing the  session  of  congress  which  has  just 
closed,  has  the  sacred  rest  of  this  day  been 
violated  by  the  representatives  of  this  nation ; 
and  on  both  occasions  scenes  of  disorder  have 
occurred  that  would  have  disgraced  the  na- 
tion's representatives  at  any  time,  and  that 
were  not  exhibited  during  any  other  part  of 
their  deliberations.  The  Sabbath  was  violated, 
not  because  there  was  not  time  for  the  ordi- 
nary purposes  of  legislation,  not  because  of 
any  extraordinary  emergency  in   public  af- 


132 

fairs — and  the  nation  has  felt  no  shock,  no 
alarm.  And  I  may  repeat  a  remark  already 
made.  The  warfare  which  Christianity  is  to 
wage  is  here.  The  opposition  to  religion  is 
here.  The  Sabbath  has  more  enemies  in  this 
land  than  the  Lord's  supper ;  than  baptism  ; 
than  the  Bible ;  than  all  the  other  institutions 
of  religion  put  together.  The  conflict  is  to 
rage  here.  The  attempt  of  the  atheist,  and 
the  infidel,  and  the  aian  of  vice,  is  to  blot  out 
the  Sabbath.  The  aitempt  is  not  to  be  made 
here  to  destroy  Christianity  by  persecution, 
for  that  has  been  tried  and  has  failed.  It  is  to 
see  whether  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  can  be 
obliterated  from  the  memory  of  man;  and  if 
it  can  be  done,  infidelity  well  knows  that  its 
cause  is  secure.  If  this  day,  with  its  sacred 
institutions,  can  be  blotted  out,  the  victory  will 
be  won.  Infidelity  will  achieve  what  the  fag- 
got and  the  stake,  what  the  force  of  argument, 
and  the  caustic  severity  of  sarcasm  and  ridi- 
cule have  never  yet  been  able  to  aocompUsh. 


133 

And  it  is  just  now  a  question  for  the  people  of 
this  land  to  determine  for  themselves,  whether 
they  shall  abandon  the  day  or  make  an  effort 
to  save  it;  whether  the  virtuous  and  the  good 
shall  yield  the  victory  without  a  stru^irle,  or 
w^hether  they  shall  combine  their  efforts,  and 
address  the  reason  and  conscience  of  their 
fellow  citizens,  and  speak  to  them  of  our 
hallowed  institutions,  and  of  the  rapid  cor- 
ruption of  the  public  morals;  w^hether  they 
shall  remind  them  of  what  the  Sabbath  has 
done  for  us  in  better  times,  and  attempt  to 
bring  back  the  nation  to  the  observance  of  an 
institution  that  would  diffuse  intelligence,  and 
soberness,  and  industry,  and  a  proper  estimate 
of  this  world  and  of  the  world  to  come,  over 
the  land. 

V.  A  fifth  reason  why  this  subject  demands 
the  attention  of  Christians  now,  is,  that  there 
is  an  increasing  laxness  of  principle  in  regard 
to  it  among  themselves.     The  proof  of  this 


134 

might  be  drawn  out  in  the  statement  of  a  va- 
riety of  facts.  There  is  less  concern  that  the 
conversation  should  be  such  as  becomes  this 
day.  There  is  less  reluctance  to  engage  in 
conversation  on  the  ordinary  topics  of  com- 
merce, of  stocks,  of  politics,  of  agriculture, 
of  hterature.  There  is  more  readiness  to 
mingle  with  the  gay  in  their  favourite  topics 
of  conversation,  and  even  in  their  amusements. 
And,  in  particular,  there  is  more  disposition  to 
violate  the  day  by  travelling.  There  is  less 
and  le§s  firmness  in  saying  that  there  is  a  con- 
scientious beUef  that  the  Sabbath  should  be 
kept  holy.  There  is  a  greater  readiness  to  fall 
in  with  the  views  of  fellow-travellers,  and  to 
make  the  sternness  of  Christian  principle 
bend  to  pleasure  or  to  convenience.  Now,  it 
is  plead  by  the  Christian  traveller,  on  the 
Sabbath,  that  he  can  enjoy  religion  in  a  canal 
boat,  or  a  steamboat  as  well  as  at  home.  And 
he,  doubtless,  speaks  the  truth,  for  he  who 
could  make  an  excuse  like  this,  is  probably  a 


135 

stranger  to  the  enjoyment  of  religion  altoge- 
ther. Now,  it  is  plead  that  he  is  in  the  com- 
pany of  fellow-travellers  who  are  indisposed 
to  rest,  and  that  he  is  unwilling  to  lose  their 
society ;  and  it  will  be  well  if,  by  this  kind  of 
compliance  with  their  disposition  to  violate  the 
law  of  God,  he  does  not  accompany  them  in 
all  their  journey  down  to  hell.  Now,  it  is 
plead  that  time  urges,  and  that  a  delay  cannot 
be  made,  when  all  the  haste  is  to  reach  a  wa- 
tering place,  and  all  the  purpose  pleasure,  and 
all  the  business  of  life  to  invent  some  modes 
to  kill  time;  and  when,  the  next  hour  after 
the  arrival,  time  will  hang  heavy  on  their 
hands,  and  haste  will  be  made  to  visit  other 
scenes  of  pleasure,  and  to  violate  other  Sab- 
baths. And  now  it  is  plead  that  business  calls 
the  professed  Christian,  and  urges  him  home- 
ward or  onward,  when  he  already  rolls  in 
wealth,  and  when  his  accumulations  only  tend 
to  ruin  his  family  and  to  send  a  bhghting  into 
his  own  soul.     I  add,  with  deep  I'egret,  and  to 


136 

the  everlasting  shame  of  the  ministry,  in  this 
land,  that  many  ministers  are  found  with  this 
class  of  pleasure-seeking  Christians,  and  lending 
their  countenance  to  the  violation  of  this  day. 
Travelling  Christians  rejoice  if  they  have  the 
countenance  of  one  such  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel. And  every  atheist,  and  scoffer,  and  drunk- 
ard that  is  a  fellow-traveller,  and  a  fellow- 
violator  of  the  law  of  God,  will  rejoice  also. 
Their  consciences  and  the  consciences  of  their 
fellow-travellers  are  often  quieted  by  the  fact 
that  they  preach,  and  that  the  voice  of  prayer 
and  praise  ascends  from  these  violators  of 
God's  holy  day.  They  preach!  O  that  they 
would  take  my  text,  and  in  each  steamboat 
and  canal  boat,  ])ress  on  their  own  con- 
sciences, and  the  consciences  of  their  fellow- 
travellers  the  command,  "  Remember  to  keep 
holy  the  Sabbath  day."  O  that  to  them  all 
the  rest  of  the  Bible  might  be  closed,  and  the 
words  of  the  fourth  commandment,  in  living 


137 

light,  gleam  all  around  them,  and  be  then'  text, 
"  their  only  text,"  till  lungs  and  voice  shall  fail. 
The  mockery  of  a  sermon  from  a  minister  of 
the  gospel,  may  do  more  evil  than  they  can 
compensate  by  the  ministry  of  a  life.  No.  If 
ministers  will  trRvel;  if  they  will  be  the  com- 
panions of  infidels,  and  profligates,  and  athe- 
ists ;  if  they  will  be  found  desecrating  this  day 
with  the  gay,  and  the  neglecters  of  God,  let 
them  not  prostitute  their  high  office  by  making 
public  proclamation  of  their  guilt.  Let  their 
mouths  be  sealed  in  silence,  and  their  heads 
hang  with  shame,  but  let  them  not  stand  forth 
to  the  world  as  the  public  violators  of  the  sa- 
cred law  of  God. 

VI.  A  sixth  reason  why  this  subject  claims 
our  attention  is,  that  it  is  in  the  power  of 
Christians,  under  the  divine  blessing,  to  save 
the  Sabbath  yet.  It  is  an  institution  whose 
value  can  be  commended  to  the  sober  judg- 

M  2 


138 

ment  of  all  men.  Our  countrymen  can  be 
convinced  that  it  will  be  unwise  to  abolish  it 
altogether.  We  do  not  look  to  legislation  on 
this  subject,  but  to  a  candid  public  sentiment. 
And  that  sentiment  may  be  formed.  A  xery 
large  portion  of  the  intelligence  and  moral 
worth  of  this  nation  is  connected  with  the 
various  religious  denominations.  A  very  large 
amount  of  the  talent  and  learning  of  this 
people  is  in  the  ministry.  The  ministry,  in  this 
nation,  has  not  lost  its  power  over  the  public 
mind,  and  the  public  ear  will  listen  to  their 
voice,  urging  to  the  formation  of  a  correct 
moral  sentiment,  and  to  healthful  moral  ac- 
tion. Infidel  leaders  can  never  command  the 
influence  which  God  and  the  Christian  church- 
es have  confided  to  the  ministry  of  reconci- 
liation. There  are,  moreover,  in  our  na- 
tional and  state  legislatures,  a  few — alas  !  that 
it  should  be  so  few — pious  men  and  friends  of 
the  Sabbath.  There  are  men  that  love  the 
Sabbath  in  the  public  directorship  of  our  col- 


139 

leges,  academies,  and  schools.  There  are 
pious  men  largely  concerned  in  the  ownership 
of  steamboats,  and  canal  lines,  and  stages,  and 
rail-roads.  There  are  a  very  large  portion  of 
the  mercantile  community — I  should  think, 
larger,  in  proportion,  than  in  any  other  class 
of  our  citizens — who  are  men  fearing  God, 
and  loving  the  Sabbath.  There  are  many  pi- 
ous men  on  the  bench,  and  at  the  bar,  and  in 
the  medical  profession.  A  large  portion  of  our 
respectable  farmers  and  mechanics  are  men, 
too,  professing  to  fear  God.  Almost  all  the 
teachers  in  our  colleges  and  schools  are  pro- 
fessors of  religion,  and  friends  of  the  Sabbath. 
A  large  portion  of  those  who  are  parents  and 
guardians,  are  numbered  among  the  friends  of 
the  Sabbath.  And  last,  not  least,  there  is  a 
portion  of  the  public  press  that  will  advocate 
the  observance  of  the  day,  and  rebuke  its  vio- 
lation; and  there  would  be  a  larger  portion 
still,  if  Christians  were  firm  and  would  do 
their  duty.     To  the  honour  of  our  country  it 


140 

may  still  be  said,  that  the  mass  of  men  of  real 
worth  and  power  in  all  the  professions  and 
callings  of  hfe  are  still  the  friends  of  religion 
and  of  the  Christian  Sabbath. 

Now,  just  what  is  needed,  under  God,  is 
concentration  and  combination  of  effort.  It  is 
needed  that  these  scattered  influences  should 
be  brought  to  bear  on  this  subject.  It  is  needed 
that  every  man,  in  his  own  proper  sphere, 
should  be  willing  to  do  his  duty,  and  to  be 
known  as  the  friend  of  the  Sabbath.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  Sabbath  should  be  obli- 
terated. The  enemy  of  this  day  makes  ad- 
vances by  concentration.  The  different  divi- 
sions of  his  army  are  combined  for  this  onset. 
He  has  ranged  under  his  broad  banner  all 
classes  of  the  enemies  of  God,  and  his  object 
is  to  make  war  on  the  Sabbath,  and,  through 
that,  on  the  religion  that  we  love.  Let  the 
power  of  example  be  felt  in  opposition  to  those 
efforts;  let  the  press  speak;  let  the  pulpit  urge 


141 

its  pleadings;  let  the  father  do  his  duty;  let 
every  man  who  has  influence  exert  that  in- 
fluence, and  our  countrymen  will  hear  us,  and 
the  day  yet  be  rescued  from  universal  profa- 
nation, and  we  be  saved  from  Xhe  evils  of  uni- 
versal profligacy  and  sin. 

These  are  some  of  the  general  reasons  why 
this  subject  claims  the  attention  of  Christians. 
There  are  two  others,  of  a  more  local  and 
special  character,  with  an  allusion  to  which  I 
shall  close. 

The  first  is  drawn  from  the  state  of  this 
city.  Where  is  the  mass  of  our  population 
to-day?  Where  are  our  young  men?  What 
are  their  engagements?  What  is  the  influence 
which  the  occurrences  of  this  day  will  be 
likely  to  have  on  their  future  morals,  and  on 
the  morals  and  piety  of  this  city?  Are  they 
in  the  sanctuary  ?  Or  are  they  crowding  our 
steamboats  and  public   and   private   vehicles, 


142 

and  spreading  riot,  and  profaneness,  and  dis- 
soluteness through  surrounding  villages,  and 
around  the  places  of  worship  and  dwelling 
places  of  our  neighbours?  We  in  this  city, 
are  comparatively  peaceful.  But  let  the  sur- 
rounding villages  speak.  Now  there  are  two 
questions  that  press  themselves  on  our  atten- 
tion. One  is,  what  right  have  we,  as  a  city, 
to  pour  forth  the  dregs  of  our  population  on 
surrounding  villages,  and  fields,  and  towns? 
What  RIGHT  have  we  to  send  forth  our  appren- 
tices and  sons  to  disturb  the  quiet,  and  inter- 
rupt the  worship  of  our  neighbours,  and  to 
spread  riot  and  intemperance  there?  The 
other  inquiry  is,  What  is  to  be  the  result  of 
this  state  of  things,  unless  this  course  is 
changed?  Vice  and  crime  begin  to-day. 
Many  a  young  man  commences  a  career  of 
dissipation  to-day  that  shall  end  in  poverty, 
idleness,  disgrace,  the  penitentiary  or  the  gal- 
lows. Many  a  son  may  commence  a  course 
to-day  that  shall  yet   bring  down   a  father's 


143 

gray  hairs  to  the  grave ;  or  break  a  mother's 
heart  over  a  fallen  and  beloved  child.  If  this 
state  of  things  is  continued,  our  future  charac- 
ter, as  a  people,  cannot  be  a  matter  of  doubt. 
Our  city,  the  ornament  of  our  land,  boasting, 
perhaps  prematurely,  of  its  morals,  and  thick 
set  with  institutions  of  philanthropy  and  cha- 
rity, may  become  the  dwelling-place  of  vice, 
and  be  as  much  distinguished  for  disorder,  as  it 
has  been  for  soberness  of  manners.  Your 
splendid  palace  on  the  Schuylkill  may  be  filled 
with  paupers  as  the  result  of  intemperance, 
commenced  on  the  Sabbath;  your  prisons 
with  convicts,  as  the  effect  of  crimes  that  had 
their  origin  there  also ;  your  orphan  asylums, 
with  weeping  children,  whose  fathers  com- 
menced the  career  of  intemperance  that 
brought  them  to  the  grave  on  this  holy  day. 
This  is  not  the  language  of  needless  alarm, 
nor  does  it  proceed  from  the  disturbed  vision 
of  fancy.  The  cities  of  the  old  world  have 
been  corrupted  in  this  same  way,  and  the  same 


144 

doom  is  before  us,  unless  there  is  moral  cou- 
rage and  virtue  enough  in  this  city  to  stay  the 
march  of  ruin. 

The  other  special  reason  why  this  subject  is 
of  importance  to  us  is,  that  the  season  of  the 
year  has  again  arrived  when  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  leave  our  homes,  and  to  visit  the  dif- 
ferent places  of  amusement,  relaxation  and 
health  in  the  land.  I  believe  that  every  Chris- 
tian is  injured  in  his  piety  by  this ;  but  we  can- 
not say  that  it  is  wrong.  We  all  feel  that  it 
is  needful  for  ourselves  and  for  our  families. 
Our  prayers  shall  go  up  to  heaven  on  this  day, 
and  through  the  week,  for  your  safety  by  land 
and  by  water;  among  friends  and  strangers, 
that  the  everlasting  arms  may  keep  you  ;  and 
restore  you,  with  augmented  strength  and 
piety,  to  the  much  loved  endearments  of  home 
and  privileges  of  this  sanctuary.  Will  you 
allow  the  word  of  exhortation  ?  The  chief 
danger  to  your  piety,  when  abroad,  results 


145 

from  the  violation  of  this  sacred  day.  Your 
main,  not  your  only  temptation,  will  be  there. 
Perhaps,  in  former  days  you  have  erred  in 
this.  Our  fervent  wish,  our  earnest  prayer  to 
the  God  of  grace  is,  that  he  will  keep  your 
lives,  and  return  you  again  to  your  homes. 
But  our  more  fervent  wish,  our  deeper  desire 
is,  that  you  may  remember  your  high  calKng 
as  a  Christian.  In  all  places,  in  all  company, 
in  all  employments,  the  doctrine  of  God  the 
Saviour  is  to  be  adorned  always.  Not  for  one 
moment  are  you  to  forget  that  you  are  a 
Christian.  Neither  when  surrounded  by  the 
fashionable  and  the  gay ;  the  pleasure-seeking 
and  the  abandoned ;  neither  in  public  convey- 
ances nor  where  you  may  abide,  are  you  to 
forget  that  you  are  solemnly  self-dedicated  to 
God;  and  that  those  hands  have  handled  the 
bread  of  life,  and  those  lips  tasted  the  cup  of 
salvation.  Pure  be  those  hands,  and  pure  the 
words  that  shall  proceed  from  those  lips.  Holy 
be  the  heart  that  has  oft  commemorated  the 


145 

Saviour's  love;  pure  the  glances  of  that  eye 
that  looks  forward  to  an  eternal  heaven ;  and 
well-ordered  the  steps  that  go  in  the  way  up 
to  the  throne  of  God. 

Whatever,  ye  friends  of  the  Redeenner,  be 
the  direction  of  your  earthly  journey,  you 
travel  toward  heaven.  Wherever  you  wander 
when  separate,  you  meet  there  at  last;  and, 
perhaps,  before  you  meet  again  in  the  sanc- 
tuary. Wherever  you  go,  carry  with  you  the 
sacred  remembrance  of  the  command  of  God 
in  my  text.  Let  it  shine,  as  if  written  in  letters 
of  living  light,  all  round  about  you.  At  home 
or  abroad,  among  kindred  or  strangers,  with 
the  friends  or  the  foes  of  God,  let  me  entreat 
you,  by  the  love  you  bear  your  country,  your 
character,  your  peace,  your  church,  youi 
pastor;  by  your  love  to  your  God  and  Sa- 
viour,  "  Remember  to  keep  holy  the  Sabbath 

DAY." 

THE  END. 


1    1012  01003  2292 


